Despite appeal for 'sensitivity,' controversial bus remains 'tourist attraction'

Despite the police's appeal for sensitivity, the tourist bus at the center of the 11-hour deadly hostage crisis remains a "tourist attraction" in Manila. A hostage taker, a dismissed policeman, former senior inspector Rolando Mendoza, boarded the "Hong Thai" tourist bus and held hostage its 25 passengers in the morning of August 23. By nighttime, after negotiations soured, an exchange of gunfire ensued and nine people died— eight Hong Kong tourists and the Filipino hostage taker. Four Filipinos and 13 Hong Kong tourists survived. Radio dzBB's Carlo Mateo reported on Wednesday that several passersby continued to take "souvenir" photos and videos of the bus at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila. The Manila police has cordoned off the bus and appealed to the public to be sensitive to the victims and their relatives. However, since Tuesday, the bus had become an attraction of sorts, with motorists and pedestrians slowing down to get a closer look at the bus. The bus sustained much damage and some of its seats were stained with blood. –VVP, GMANews.TV