Hostage-taker's brother also a suspended policeman

SPO2 Gregorio Mendoza, the brother of hostage-taker Rolando Mendoza, also has a pending case before the Office of the Ombudsman. On the third day of the investigation of the Incident Investigation and Review Committee on the August 23 hostage tragedy, Mendoza said Monday that in April 2009, an administrative and a criminal complaint were filed against him for supposed obstruction of justice over a traffic case he had investigated. The Ombudsman cleared him of criminal charges in February 2010. In August 21 this year, or two days before the bloodbath at the Quirino Grandstand, the Ombudsman ordered his suspension for a month in connection with the administrative aspect of his case. Mendoza said he receive the suspension order last August 31. "Sinuspend nila ako. Wala po akong magagawa (I was suspended. I can't do anything about that)," said Mendoza. Mendoza was helping negotiators deal with his brother during the hostage-taking incident, but he was later ordered arrested for allegedly conspiring with the hostage-taker, a dismissed policeman demanding for his reinstatement in the police force. The arrest caused a commotion at the vicinity of the incident and was witnessed by Rolando Mendoza through a television set inside the tourist bus that he had hijacked. It is widely believed that Rolando Mendoza's anger was further stoked when he saw the arrest of his brother. At that point, he opened fire at the hostages, killing eight, all of them tourists from Hong Kong. — Sophia Regina Dedace/KBK/RSJ, GMANews.TV