With the entire world focused on this incident ...
I don't believe the Philippine government can afford to admit anything other
then everyone was killed by Mendoza !

I was monitoring the news the whole evening and even missed dinner. From the moment the victims' bodies were loaded onboard and when they arrived in HKIA. HKG GOV will be doing their own investigation and has requested the Philippines to be professional about their own investigation. At the moment, everyone is waiting for BA III visit to BeiJing and to HKG. I hope he will be diplomatic and say the correct thing. Let's hope he will not create more controversy.

with the facial expression he possesses ... controversy is imminent !

True, BAIII is useless. But I was also not impressed by our Donald's initial statements either. He used the word "disappointed" a few times, and I just remember thinking "Disappointed? WTF?! You get 'disappointed' when someone makes an error in accounting, or something like that... not when people are shot dead in a hostage-taking!! And how useless that you couldn't get through to their president! A true leader would have gotten through no matter what it takes... You are not a leader for HK."

i thought BA III will only send the deputy to Beijing and HK right?

BA III is just useless.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages ... 381241339694?v=wall

This is the memorial page i find in facbook. sorry that i cannot find an English version.

Actually I find that Donald Tsang handled the incident pretty well, as he is acting as a real diplomat.  

He can't exactly say anything that bad, even if he wanted to, otherwise the world will be criticizing Hong Kong.  That's just the way it is.

And knowing the Philippine president, he probably deliberately avoided taking the call.  Not much Tsang can do about that.

Yeah, the Philippines is showing its true colors now.  BSA isn't even going personally to HK, he's sending the Vice President and DILG Sec.  Truely statemanslike!

Funny enough, even though the Philippines failed badly, they are still saying stuff like ... "we commend our police force for being so brave for attempting to save the hostage even when they didn't have the right equipment ... ".  The Philippines is really bad at that .. they fuck things up and to save face, will deny they did anything wrong.  The fall back statement of the Filipinos is always .. "You're not Filipino, how can you criticize us!"  Retarded thinking abounds here.

Okay, now this is wrong...

Not only do some people turn out for a photo op. with the bus, the police even get in on the action.

(Photos taken from another board - http://www.worldsexguide.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53704  - no info on there, just some rednecks Filipino bashing)

Fucking retards!!!!!

Let me go burn some incense and pay my respect to my RIP commies.

If you dont see me log in this site for the next few days, you know what happen to me...

this is disgusting!

police taking pics of themselves, and even SMILING for the camera!

i stay in the philippines for the most part, and this is outright embarassing!

I hate to say it, but based on these pics it almost looks like the police are proud of the job they did...

In DT's talk with the press you could tell by his body language and the tone of his voice
that he was truely sickened by what he knew of this incident but being the top official in HK
the language he used, had to be in line with diplomatic protocol, I think he used the strongest
language possible under these circumstances.

As for BA III not answering DT's call ... unless it was president of the USA was calling, I'm not surprised
that the head of this micky mouse government didn't take the call.

I'm for once, actually impressed with the way the HK government handled this incident,
but this is all superficial compared with what the surviving hostages will have to go through
once the public’s emotional outburst dies down … in the coming weeks, months, years …
the rest of their life time …

2 children with no parents,
a mother with no husband and 2 children and a surviving son who might never lead a normal life again …

I can’t describe the grief, the sadness I feel for the surviving hostages
and the anger I feel towards the way the Philippine government handled this incident !

I've been to the Philippines several times.  The moment you step off the plane, you know the country is crappy.  I hate to say this because most of its people, especially their women, are genuinely friendly and warm.  It's heart-breaking to see many of them live in poverty and in a completely dysfunctional country.  This is an example of a failed democracy, one corrupt at all levels.

I've notice a lot of their police officers are fat.  I bet I can easily outrun most of them.

I've heard a lot about how gun-happy they can be in PI - can you outrun their bullets???

Seriously .. those photos are so disrepectful .. man .. are they fucking serious!

This incident is no frigging joke! Man i can't get over how frigging useless the police were.

There is something fundamentally wrong with the Filipino or just perhaps I haven't had much luck with them. I am not saying this out of prejudice but from my true life experience.

Have had quite a few Filipina GFs in HK (civi girls and air stewardesses) when I was younger and they always have a chip on their shoulder, some gripe about life, too much drama for my liking. This surfaces after you get closer to them and they're great at portraying themselves as angelic and proper at the beginning but something ugly always emerges.  They only make excuses, excuses, more excuses and never take any blame like BAIII saying that even Russians could fuck up a hostage situation and they did a good job under the circumstances.

I also had a lot of friends in the Philippines and spent most of my weekends there years ago. Been to Manila maybe 40 times. Had a good Filipino friend who insisted I stay at his house whenever I visit Manila. He was a charming playboy and would go around courting all these rich Filipina girls from good families. He was very generous and would always have Tomas, one of his drivers and a bodyguard at my full disposal.

One night, I was out till 4am and the driver, Tomas was 30 minutes late the next morning in picking up one of my friend's GFs for work (she worked shifts at a hotel). When my friend found out, he lost his temper, got a baseball bat and smashed Tomas, breaking his arm and fracturing his hand. After that he took his 45 pistol and shot Tomas in the leg at point blank range. The driver was then fired and was thrown out by the bodyguards like trash. I was out at the time and did not know any of this had happened. When I returned my friend acted charming as usual and said that Tomas had resigned. Two of his servants later related these events to me. I was shocked and told my friend that I had urgent business and had to get back to HK. My friend was never prosecuted and there was a small article in the newspaper the next day about Tomas being savagely attacked and shot by some bandits. This was all a shock to me as my friend was a respected member of the community from a good family and not involved with any gangsters.

When I saw the TV footage of protestors in HK at the Philippine embassy with the sign "TOTAL DISREGARD FOR LIFE", it brought back many unpleasant memories for me about Tomas. I did not dare confront my friend at the time because I could've gotten shot as well.

After the Tomas incident, I have had enough with the Philippines and vowed never to go back there again for leisure and try to avoid it altogether. They always seem charming on the surface but men are trigger happy and have a violent streak while the women are complicated and would lie with such conviction they themselves think it is the truth. True Lies. This seem particularly true with the upper echelon of society who I was acquainted with.

I also once just missed a bullet by a whisker on New Year's Eve when at the stroke of midnight, all the policemen and civilians took out their pistols and started firing live rounds into the air. It was dangerous especially when they were drunk and totally senseless.

[ Last edited by  geoduck at 27-8-2010 00:37 ]

I will agree with the chip on the shoulder, especially for Filipinos who fled the Philippines in hopes of a better life abroad.  They will always have a chip on their shoulder trying to show you that they are not inferior, and once back in the Philippines, will act like they are superior to all the Filipinos living in the PI.  I agree with the excuses excuses excuses for their inadequacies.

I don't really agree with the "trigger-happy" guys.  While shootings happen because of the careless proliferation of guns, it's not that common to shoot somebody just for such a small thing.

Your friend Tomas sounds like a complete asshole.  I know some very prominent political families, including a bunch of generals, and I don't believe any of them would shoot somebody for such a small infraction.  Beat the shit out of him and throw him out, yeah sure, but to actually fire a gun at a lowly worker?

I would be more likely to believe it if this happened out in the provinces, where you can bury a body without anybody knowing, but in Manila?  It's actually more of a "total disregard for staying free and not in prison" rather than a "total disregard for life".

However, if the family you are talking about is the Singsons, then I'll believe that story.  They believe they are demi-gods.  That's why the son is being held in HK for drug possession at this moment, and given the sentiment of the Hong Kong people, I think he picked the absolute worst time to get caught.

BTW, where are you during New Years where there are lots of police and civilians with guns?  If you are in Malate then its dangerous by default, let alone New Years.

[ Last edited by  markreyes at 27-8-2010 00:54 ]

The SWAT team don't even have proper uniforms. And they took over 60 mins to storm a bus with only ONE Gunman onboard. I would expect professional SWAT team to so in 60 seconds MAX.

Just heard today that the Philippine army offered its services but they were not used...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11105097

This line in particular seems to indicate that someone, probably the police chief, will be used as a scapegoat, to try and make this all go away...

"In his strongest statement yet on the siege, President Aquino said on Thursday: "Someone failed. Someone will pay.""

[ Last edited by  lister01 at 27-8-2010 11:08 ]

I feel so sorry for them, RIP......