The Manila Metropolitan Trial Court (MMTC) again postponed the arraignment of the brother of slain hostage taker former Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza. MMTC Branch 11 Judge Ernest Louie Miguel reset the arraignment and preliminary conference of Manila Police District (MPD) Senior Police Officer 2 Gregorio Mendoza, which was scheduled on Tuesday, after Mendoza’s lawyer filed a motion for reconsideration. The arraignment was postponed to Dec. 2. An earlier arraignment, scheduled for Sept. 3 was rescheduled to Oct. 26. SPO2 Mendoza is being charged for being an accomplice of his brother in the Aug. 23 Manila hostage crisis. On that day the older Mendoza, disgruntled over his dismissal from police service for alleged extortion, had commandeered a tourist bus from Intramuros and held hostage 21 Hong Kong tourists and four Filipinos to push for his demand that he be reinstated. The drama, which played out for 11 hours at the Quirino grandstand in Luneta Park, ended with the gunman opening fire while police struggled to take him down and rescue the hostages.
Mendoza and eight Hong Kong tourists were killed and several others were injured in the ensuing carnage.
In the aftermath of the botched hostage rescue, the government created the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC) to investigate the fiasco and make recommendations, and on Sept. 17, it released its report. On Oct. 11, after Malacañang’s legal team reviewed the IIRC report, President Benigno Aquino III ordered the filing of administrative charges against the Manila mayor and some police officers, but spared top police and security officials including Interior Undersecretary Rico Puno and retired Philippine National Police chief Jesus Verzosa from criminal prosecution.
At the same time, Aquino ordered the filing of criminal charges against SPO2 Mendoza for allegedly aiding his hostage-taker brother. Faulted for being a brother “My only fault is that I am the brother of the hostage taker," SPO2 Mendoza when he appeared at the sala of Judge Miguel.
He said he could not believe that the government is still after him despite the fact that it was his slain brother who held tourists hostage. SP02 Mendoza maintained that he was innocent of serious disobedience charges filed by the Manila Police District (MPD). “I did not do anything wrong. I guess they can only fault me for the fact that (Rolando) Mendoza was my brother," he told reporters. Miguel had to postpone the arraignment after Mendoza’s counsel filed a motion for reconsideration on the judge's order, which junked the accused motion to quash. The prosecution panel, for its part, told the court that they would just adapt the previous comment they had submitted against the defense's motion.
In mid-October, the younger Mendoza had accused the head of the crisis committee in charge of the hostage taking, Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, of ordering his liquidation, saying that it was this fact triggered his brother’s rage and the bloodbath.
Echoing the conclusion of the IIRC based on the testimony of another police official, Mendoza asserted that Lim had ordered Manila police to take him (the younger Mendoza) to “Tondo," which he claimed in police jargon meant that he was going to be summarily executed.—DM/JV
