Yebra: Hostage-taker intended to fire first shot at 3 pm on Aug 23

The police negotiator during the Manila hostage crisis claimed that the hostage-taker, disgruntled policeman Rolando Mendoza intended to fire his first shot at 3:00 p.m. on August 23, when he held hostage 21 Hong Kong tourists and four Filipinos. During the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC)'s proceedings on Monday, the chief negotiator, Superintendent Orlando Yebra said Mendoza was impatiently demanding to speak with a female reporter. "He is really intending to fire that first shot 3:00 p.m. pa lang," said Yebra. During the hostage crisis, Mendoza has posted the handwritten message "3 PM DEADLOCK" and later "MEDIA NOW." At around noon that day, Mendoza wanted to speak with a female reporter and a cameraman, allegedly to correct wrong reports about his previous case. Mendoza, a police captain, was the Chief of the Mobile Patrol Unit of the Manila Police District before he was dismissed on charges of robbery and extortion in 2008. "Captain Mendoza first demanded for a female reporter and a cameraman," said Yebra. He quoted Mendoza as saying, "Eh kasi mali ang report nila sa akin, sinisira nila ako." A failure Yebra admitted that the hostage negotiations were a failure because eight hostages died, even though he managed to get nine hostages released. "Do you admit that it was a failure?" asked Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, head of the IIRC. Yebra replied, "Yes ma'am, because I was not able to take out all of them. Even if there were nine (released), we still cannot say that I was successful. Especially for us negotiators, it is a failure." "Our objective is to save lives of the vicitms, even that of the hostage taker. We do not want even a single one to die," Yebra explained. –VVP, GMANews.TV