Chinese foreign ministry responds to IIRC report

The Chinese Foreign Ministry (CFM) responded on Tuesday to the formal report of the Philippines on the August 23 hostage crisis, “express[ing] its appreciation" that Filipinos had handled the incident in a “sincere and serious manner." The Chinese Embassy in the Philippines was furnished on Monday with a copy of the formal report prepared by the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC), the body tasked with probing the hostage tragedy. On August 23, dismissed policeman Rolando Mendoza hijacked a bus and commandeered it to the Quirino Grandstand, in an 11-hour hostage-taking standoff that ended with the deaths of Mendoza and eight tourists, all Hong Kong residents. Tensions have risen between China and the Philippines over the perceived inability of the Philippine government to handle properly the hostage situation, leading unnecessarily to the deaths of the Hong Kong tourists. The IIRC report scored Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, head of the crisis management committee, for setting in motion “a chain of events that became the tipping point that pushed Mendoza to become fatally hostile." Lim had ordered the arrest of the hostage-taker’s brother, Gregorio Mendoza, which media outfits recorded and broadcast live. According to the IIRC analysis, the footage aired on the bus TV of his brother being arrested was a big factor in increasing Mendoza's already simmering rage. When gunshots were heard inside the bus, a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team moved in, but their assault was “inefficient, disorganized, and stalled," said the IIRC. The committee also singled out Manila police chief Rodolfo Magtibay for “gross insubordination" in sending out a SWAT team instead of a more capable elite commando unit, the Special Action Force (SAF), in defiance of presidential orders. (See related story: IIRC lists 8 critical incidents during hostage crisis.) The CFM urged the Aquino administration to “prevent the reoccurrence of similar tragedies." Hong Kong citizens critical In contrast to the CFM's guarded welcome, citizens of Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, have been openly critical of the IIRC report. Survivor Li Yick-biu told the South China Morning Post that the IIRC report was "full of holes" because it did not adequately explain how one of the other survivors of the hostage incident, Jason Leung Song-xue, sustained a severe head injury. The IIRC report “has not done justice to the victims," blared the front-page headline of the Hong Kong-based paper Apple Daily. A Hong Kong legislator, Ronny Tong, also criticized the report because it did not definitively rule out the possibility that ‘friendly fire’ had killed the victims. (See related story: Hong Kongers criticize Philippine hostage report.) The CFM was more diplomatic in its response. “We hope that the Philippine side continues to handle the aftermath [of the hostage crisis] in an appropriate manner, so as to console the souls of the victims and render comfort to the bereft families and injured Hong Kong compatriots," the CFM stated. Filipinos dissatisfied Meanwhile, President Benigno Aquino III has been criticized for giving the report first to China before making it public to the Filipino people. Undersecretary Esteban Conejos of the Department of Foreign Affairs formally turned over the entire IIRC report to Chinese Ambassador Liu Jianchao on Monday morning. However, Aquino has only released parts of the report locally. The version released to the public, posted at the Official Gazette website, excluded pages 61-83 of the report, which contained the IIRC’s conclusions on accountability, recommendations, highlights, and epilogue. Aquino said his legal team will have to review the document first, while he is on a working trip to the United States, which will last from September 20-26. Several lawmakers have slammed Aquino for his handling of the IIRC report. House Minority leader Rep. Edcel Lagman said that the "calibrated dissemination" of the report offends the tenets of transparency and fairness. Meanwhile, in response to Malacañang’s insistence that giving China the report first was an act of diplomatic courtesy, opposition Senator Joker Arroyo asked, “"How about courtesy to the Filipino people? Is that report intended for Hong Kong or for the Filipino people?" Even Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, chair of the IIRC, admitted to misgivings that China received the report before the Filipino people, although she reiterated that the decision was the President's prerogative, according to a report by the GMA news program Saksi. (See related video: China given copy of IIRC report.) The CFM made no comment on the disagreements within the Philippine government about the IIRC report, indicating only that its brief press release was based on an “initial reading." “Since it is a long report, the Chinese side does need time for a careful study," said the CFM. The results of the IIRC’s marathon hearings into the hostage crisis, a document titled “First Report of the IIRC on the 23 August 2010 Rizal Park Hostage-taking Incident: Sequence of Events, Evaluation and Recommendations," is 83 pages long, with over 200 pages of annexes. Still, “the Chinese side stands ready to work with the Philippine side to advance the bilateral relations in a sound and steady manner," the CFM said.—Larissa Mae Suarez/JV, GMANews.TV