He may have been an outstanding policeman but the moment Rolando Mendoza boarded that bus with his M16 rifle, he became the kind of criminal he wouldn’t have hesitated to arrest in the peak of his decorated career.
He may have been a victim of injustice but the moment he took the tourists hostage–families who had nothing to do with him, nor his grievances, nor his lonely battle–he became a perpetrator of the worst kind.
He may have been innocent of extortion but he was definitely guilty of hostage-taking and later, when the first shot was fired and the first drop of blood was spilled, he became guilty of eight counts of murder.
In the aftermath, fingers are pointing left and right. Accusations are coming as fast as the volley of bullets exchanged last night–the SWAT team was incompetent, the media was too meddlesome, there was no one in control, he should have been given what he wanted earlier, he should have been shot sooner. Everyone has their own opinion and all our inner Jack Bauer and Evelyn Salt’s have been unleashed as we excitedly share how we would have dealt with it if we were in charge.
But yesterday’s drama wasn’t just a game of Counterstrike where flashbangs could be thrown with wild abandon. Yesterday’s tragedy was not the stage of a movie where the fallen would rise after a successful take. There were no cuts, no doubles, no second, third, fourth chances to get things right. There was no delayed telecast and no time to hide what went wrong, which only made what should have been done right all the more obvious.
Sadly, yesterday’s melodrama was gruesomely, horrifyingly, embarrassingly real.
Tags: august 23, bus, hostage, mendoza, philippines, quirino grandstand
