Crisis body abandoned crisis, Isko Moreno tells probers

MANILA, Philippines—By turns combative and cocky, Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno on Saturday told the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC) that the local crisis committee appeared to have abandoned the hostage crisis on Aug. 23 at its most crucial hours.

Speaking in a mix of English and Filipino, Moreno said: “What I know was when the mayor [Alfredo Lim] left, I left also...When I stepped out [of the command center in Rizal Park] I saw the [Special Action Force] and others in [assault] uniform...I wished them luck and told them to be careful.

“Then I went to the Manila Pavilion [hotel] and I looked for a television set. I asked for coffee from the bartender and told him to switch the channel to ANC. That’s when I saw that there were gunshots already.”

“Who were left at the command post?” Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, the IIRC chair, said.

“I presumed all the [police] generals were there,” Moreno said.

At the same hearing, members of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team admitted that they assaulted the tour bus without knowing the exact locations of the hostages and the hostage-taker.

SP03 Alfonso Gameng Jr., head of one of the three SWAT teams, also admitted to the IIRC that they had had no regular training, and that two of his men were concerned that their bullet-proof vests had “expired.”

“We don’t have [any monthly training] so we just train among ourselves,” he said.

Gameng said his last local training was in February. He also had local training in 1990, and then marksmanship training.

“He was telling me he went to the US to train and he hoped they could have monthly training, but they don’t have any support,” Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, an IIRC member, said during the hearing.

Members of the Hong Kong police, including a female prosecutor, again observed the proceedings, as they did on Friday.

The marathon hearing is to be concluded tomorrow.

On Friday, Interior Undersecretary Rico Puno, who had been designated by President Benigno Aquino to oversee the police force, told the IIRC that the hostage-taking was classified as a “local crisis” and was at no point considered a national crisis despite the fact that 22 hostages were Chinese nationals.

‘I don’t know’

Moreno, a former movie actor and a long-time vice mayor, said he was not aware of the structure, specific functions, and composition of a local crisis committee, but knew that he was acting as its vice chair, with Lim as the chair.

He said he did not know the “by the book” process of how the crisis management committee operated beginning with its activation, but expressed the belief that it became operational the moment that Lim ordered him to rush to the command center at the Rizal Park and inform other City Hall officials to be “on standby” to respond to the crisis.

But he said he believed that the crisis management committee was doing its task when it dispatched doctors, psychologists, and ambulances to the scene.

He also pointed out that city officials like himself did their own thing to help resolve the crisis, such as his three-hour round trip from Manila to Quezon City despite a heavy downpour to secure from Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez a letter to hostage-taker Rolando Mendoza promising the ex-policeman that she would personally review the case that led to his dismissal from the service.

“Do you know that according to the protocol, members of the crisis management committee should be at the command post during the progress of the incident?” Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, the IIRC vice chair, said.

The vice mayor replied in the negative.

Personal opinion

Moreno also said he “personally” felt that the situation was more a “national crisis” than a local one, with the captives being foreigners.

However, he said, he kept that opinion to himself as he was more concerned with the swift resolution of the crisis.

Under questioning by IIRC member Herman Basbaño, head of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas, Moreno said he was “not a specialist in hostage-taking.”

“But I believe on my personal level that since those involved were foreigners, [the crisis already reached the] national level. That’s my personal opinion,” he said.

Moreno said he did not mention his opinion to Lim and to Chief Supt. Rodolfo Magtibay, the ground commander.

He said he just concentrated on his task, which was to meet with Gutierrez and to serve as the “postman” who hand-delivered the Ombudsman’s letter to the command center, for the negotiators to turn over to Mendoza.

As it turned out, Mendoza ignored Gutierrez’s letter, calling it “trash,” because he wanted reinstatement in the police service.

Police operation

Moreno also revealed that the review of Mendoza’s case, and not his reinstatement, was discussed at the command center.

“Had the reinstatement option been discussed, I would have gone to the Napolcom (National Police Commission),” he said.

Moreno said after Mendoza fired a first shot, he believed that the situation had turned into a “police operation” and that his function as vice chair of the local crisis committee had ceased.

IIRC member Teresita Ang See wanted to confirm with Moreno her observation that both the chair and vice chair of the crisis management committee were not at the command center “at the most critical moment,” or the period before the police assault.

“Well, you say ‘most critical moment.’ That’s your perception,” Moreno said.

Basbaño asked Moreno if he did not rush back to the command center when the fire fight between the policemen and Mendoza broke out.

“Salubungin ko ang bala (I should face the bullets)?” Moreno said.

He said that after the hostage-taker was shot, he went to Manila Doctors’ Hospital to check on the condition of the victims. A doctor told him that four of the Hong Kong tourists were declared dead on arrival.

Weak in the knees

Moreno recalled Lim presiding over a meeting with Magtibay, Supt. Orlando Yebra and other police officials in a separate room at the command center, apparently to discuss the hostage-taker’s brother, SPO2 Gregorio Mendoza.

He said that when, minutes later, Lim left the command center, he also left, feeling weak in the knees and thinking his role in the crisis had ended.

Moreno said he also saw a group of heavily armed men whom he presumed were either Manila’s SWAT team or a military assault team, which made him think that there was already going to be a “police operation.”

He said he wished the men luck and told them to be careful, and then proceeded to the hotel where, on TV, he saw SPO2 Mendoza vigorously fighting off police efforts to get him inside a mobile patrol car.

He also said it was at the hotel that he monitored the assault.

Moreno indicated that he did not know that Lim had gone to the Emerald Restaurant to meet with other officials.

Out of the picture

Basbaño noted that the crisis committee seemed to have left the situation in the hands of Magtibay.

Robredo asked Moreno if he was “influenced by the decision” of Lim to leave the command center.

Said Moreno: “In a way, I believe so...When I left, my perception was, the mayor had left. I left because I don’t know the structure of the crisis committee, how it functions. I believed it was now a police operation. That’s why I wished [the police] luck.

“What happened was that we went out of the picture because of this first shot [fired by Mendoza after he junked the Ombudsman letter].”

Nikko Dizon, Phil. Daily Inquirer