IIRC lists 8 critical incidents during hostage crisis

The Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC) has listed eight critical incidents that affected the final outcome of the august 23 hostage crisis that killed eight Hong Kong tourists and the hostage-taker, dismissed police officer Rolando Mendoza. Below is the summary of the errors authorities committed in handling the hostage crisis as listed by the IIRC. 1. The Crisis Management Committee (CMC) that was supposed to be headed by Manila City Mayor Alfedo Lim was not activated according to the manual on the activation of a CMC. There were no activated sub-groups of the CMC that conducted intelligence gathering on the make of the bus, debriefed released hostages, evaluated the behavior of the hostage-taker, and handled the media covering the incident. 2. The Ombudsman had an "improper appreciation" of the hostage-taker's demand. The Ombudsman's action only promised to further delay the already delayed resolution of Mendoza's Motion for Reconsideration to be reinstated into the police service. "If it was intentional, then a proper assessment of its implications should have been made," the IIRC said. Mendoza's case file also wasn't delivered to the Department of Justice as demanded by Mendoza twice. 3. Negotiations started to break down when Mendoza read the letter by the Ombudsman, which infuriated him. Mendoza's attention was also distracted by Michael Rogas's interview and his brother Gregorio telling him that Gregorio's gun has not yet been returned by authorities. The latter report further infuriated the hostage-taker because he felt betrayed, claiming that negotiator Superintendent Orlando Yebra told him the gun had been returned. Mendoza aimed and fired his rifle at the negotiating team. 4. Yebra, Lim, [Chief Superintendent] Rodolfo Magtibay and other police officers focused on Gregorio when they should have trained their attention to the infuriated hostage-taker. Mayor Lim ordered that Gregorio be handcuffed. "By attending to the peripheral matter, precious time to salvage the negotiations, already critical at this late hour of the crisis situation, was lost. The windows of opportunity were closing," said the IIRC. "This incident led to a chain of events that became the tipping point that pushed Mendoza to become fatally hostile," it added. 5. Police arrested Gregorio upon the orders of Mayor Lim. According to the IIRC, this was "the proximate cause of the chain of events that led to Mendoza's shooting of the hostages. "Mayor Lim was aware of Mendoza's potential adverse reaction to the arrest as he told the escorting officers to avoid the media. "Adding a potential irritant to Mendoza with the arrest of his brother was a lack or absence of sound judgment," said the IIRC. 6. Lim, the head of the CMC, and ground commander Magtibay left the Advance Command Post after the previous critical incidents to go to Emerald Restaurant. The move "created a vacuum in command or decision makers," resulting in "the inability of those present to handle crisis events as they unfolded," said the IIRC. 7. The police assault that followed was "inefficient, disorganized, and stalled. "There was no relevant intelligence information on, for instance, the make of the bus, i.e. the strength of the window panels and the emergency button to open the main door. Magtibay also chose to send in a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team instead of the better trained and equipped Special Action Force (SAF). 8. There was no organized Post Assault plan, which includes providing timely and efficient medical attention to hostages, securing the area, and preserving the scene for evidence gathering. There was no crowd control, with by-standers rushing to the bus's immediate vicinity and some reporters even allowed to board ambulances. "Again, [these] Critical Incidents [are] a result of the CMC not being properly convened and the obvious lack of foresight and planning by the Ground Commander and all other authorities charged with the function of ensuring the proper and efficient handling of the crisis situation from its inception to the post assault events," said the IIRC. — LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV