Disarm suspended cops, Sotto urges PNP

August 31, 2010, 6:03pm

In the aftermath of the bloody hostage taking incident, Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente Tito Sotto III called on the Philippine National Police (PNP) to disarm all suspended and dismissed policemen to prevent them from using it in harming people and in illegal activities.

Senator Sotto made his call as he wondered why former policeman turned hostage taker Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza still had his gun in his possession despite his dismissal from the service by the Ombudsman for extortion.

Although already dismissed from the police service, Mendoza was still armed with M-16 rifle and a handgun when he held hostage the 25 Hong Kong tourists inside a bus last week.

“We all know there are many suspended policemen due to various cases against them but do we know if they have surrendered their firearms or were disarmed by their superiors,” Sotto stated.

Warning that more negative repercussions of the Quirino grandstand hostage crisis is yet to come, an opposition congressman asked Malacañang to take more decisive actions to assuage the feeling of Hong Kong officials and nationals.

Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio Arroyo said that the government should prove its leadership mettle in the aftermath of the recent hostage crisis.

The brother-in-law of President now Pampanga Rep. Gloria M. Arroyo said in a statement that the government’s actuations during and after the international incident were definitely “not normal and unbecoming.’’

The Negros Occidental solon said he hopes the cancellation of Philippine tours by Chinese tourists could just be the start of the damage to the country resulting from the hostage crisis.

Arroyo warned that unless the government decides to take more serious action to assuage the feelings of Hong Kong, Filipinos should not feel optimistic that everything will return to normal soon. (with report from Ben Rosario)

source abs cbn