For their alleged “palpable incompetence" in handling the Manila hostage crisis, an opposition lawmaker on Wednesday sought the resignation of three Cabinet officials— Interior secretary Jesse Robredo and Secretaries Ricky Carandang and Herminio Coloma.
House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman said the three should all resign because their “palpable incompetence and culpable indifference" allegedly contributed to the mishandling of the hostage crisis where nine people died — eight Hong Kong tourists and the hostage taker, dismissed policeman Rolando Mendoza. If they will not resign voluntarily, Lagman said President Benigno Simeon Aquino III should fire them “for palpable incompetence and culpable indifference and for being unmindful of the adverse effects of the hostage crisis, if not properly addressed and solved, to the economy, tourism and overseas employment." “Neither a postmortem of the tragic hostage taking fiasco nor a contrite presidential apology will be enough if the heads of high ranking responsible officials are spared," Lagman said in a press statement. He said the three officials must be dismissed to assure foreign governments that “ineffectual and errant performance of government officials will not be tolerated." The lawmaker said Robredo exercises jurisdiction over the Philippine National Police “whose ground commanders and Special Weapons and Tactics elements bungled the negotiations and rescue operations resulting in the death of eight tourists from Hong Kong." He said concerned police officials have already admitted the serious failures and defects in handling the situation. “Command responsibility is lodged with Robredo who failed to take full control of the situation and did not immediately respond to the scene of the crisis which lasted 11 hours," Lagman said. Carandang and Coloma of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Group, on the other hand, allegedly failed to prevent media practitioners from broadcasting live the rescue operation.
Lagman said the live television broadcasts allowed the hostage taker to monitor and anticipate moves of the police. He said the crisis protocol for media covering hostage-taking incidents has long been established internationally.
He explained that a protocol has to be followed so that the safety of the hostages is not compromised and official planning and execution are not exposed. “Both Carandang and Coloma failed to enforce the protocol on the media which covered live the crisis situation. In fact, Carandang even defended media’s improvident live coverage," said Lagman, the Albay representative. He added that there was also no report that either Carandang or Coloma went to the venue of the crisis during the 11-hour ordeal. In stressing his point, Lagman said “in India, the Minister of Transportation invariably resigns when trains collide." – VVP
