Philippine hostage crisis puts pressure on president Aquino

The Philippines on Tuesday defended its handling of a bloody hostage siege that has added to pressure on president Benigno Aquino to show he can pull the country out of years of poor management and decline.

There was anger in China over the chaotic rescue, and Hong Kong's chief executive said he was unable to contact Aquino during the crisis in which eight tourists from Hong Kong and their disgruntled ex-policemen kidnapper were killed.

Hong Kong advised residents against travel to the Philippines, and in China the widely-read tabloid the Global Times, run by Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily, said the botched rescue reflected a deeper malaise.

"The Philippines is one of the most chaotic countries in Southeast Asia," the newspaper said. "A culture of colonisation, autocracy and rapid changes in government have created all sorts of curious grievances in this country." 

The day-long siege took place directly in front of the grandstand where Aquino was sworn in less than two months ago.

The son of two heroes of Philippine democracy, Aquino swept to power on a wave of emotion sparked by his mother's death and hopes that his family's reputation for honesty could arm him to take on corruption and restore the lustre of Asia's faded star.

"Of course this added to our problems," Aquino said at a midnight media conference, saying it would not help plans to create jobs by doubling tourist numbers to 6 million a year.

Nearly 122,000 people from Hong Kong and China visited the Philippines in the first five months of 2010, up 24% from a year earlier and accounting for about 10 percent of tourists.

The problems facing the nation, where the World Bank says around a third of the population live in poverty, are many.

Long-running insurgencies by Muslim separatists and Maoists, clan wars and criminal gangs and ease of access to guns pose major security risks.

The hostage-taker, a sacked policeman, was armed with a M-16 assault rifle, small firearms and grenades. 

Assistant professor Bryan Wong, of Hong Kong's Chinese University, said the gunman was an example of an underlying problem in the Philippines of police involvement in crime.

"This kidnapping thing or taking hostages involving policemen have been regular issues in Philippines society locally. There are regularly Chinese businessmen being kidnapped by people, often with police involvement," he said.

Corruption and poor governance also thwart efforts to improve government finances, develop much-needed infrastructure and equip security forces properly. 

The end of the siege in downtown Manila was messy, with police launching an initial assault on the bus in heavy rain before waiting an hour to move in again.

"In an assault to rescue hostages and save lives, the operations should be swift and precise," retired police general Rodolfo Mendoza told Reuters.

"It should be over in five minutes, but what we saw was comical because it took some time for the commandos to open the door at the back of the bus," added the former intelligence and counter-terrorism officer

Authorities had taken heart from the release of nine hostages by the gunman, who was angry at being sacked from the force, and expected a peaceful resolution. During the day, the gunman stood on the front steps of the bus with the door open.

"The police could have taken a clear shot to immobilise him when he was not threatening the hostages and the negotiators talking to him," Mendoza said.

That view was shared by netizens in China. "Why did the police not shoot dead the hostage-taker when he was standing beside the door all alone?" wrote a user on a bulletin board of the website of Beijing's elite Tsinghua University. 

Aquino said while police capabilities would be improved, the hostage crisis did not change the government's priorities.

"We are trying to prepare as best we can in all of these contingencies, but we will not be deterred to improve the lot of the Filipino," he said.