Hostage Crisis

While the actions of the man are clearly misguided, the overall handling is really bad. The hostage taker already released hostages early in the day, mostly elderly and children. He asked for food and gas for the bus’s air conditioning. He gave a 3pm deadline but the deadline passed without incident. It should have been properly cordoned off and people moved back. In failure of this, a bystander was shot by a stray bullet. Pure luck the bystander lives. Then at the end of the event after the hostage taker was shot, bystanders stormed the bus area and it was chaos. I am pretty sure this hindered the retrieval operations and movement of authorities. I hope the victims and their families recover fully from this horrible ordeal, which I believe could have been prevented had everyone involved thought about their actions first than recklessly ruining all efforts for a peaceful surrender of the hostage taker.
Like many Filipinos, I'm also completely disappointed and very angry with the fact that the crisis was totally mismanaged by our government and a lot of innocent lives were wasted. Sadly, the incompetency and inefficiency of our government shone brightest in this incidence, which led me to feel that we again lack the needed leadership to move forward. In hindsight, all the crisis-management team needed was a good leader someone level-headed, patient, peace-loving, determined, brave and smart enough to take hold of the situation and resolve it. That leader, frustratingly, I believe we still sorely lack. To the people of Hong Kong, know that the whole Philippines is deeply mourning with you on this great loss and tragedy and we share the anger over the appalling professional standards and the lack of strategic planning over the crisis. However, please spare our fellow citizens who are peacefully working and staying in your country. It is not them who should bear the consequences of the actions of one crazy man and the mistakes of our government.