Hostage negotiator among unsuccessful Bar takers

Superintendent Orlando Yebra, chief negotiator in the Aug. 23 Manila hostage tragedy, did not pass the 2010 Bar examinations, but he is hopeful that he will make it the next time around. "When I saw the results, I had no choice but to accept it. Life is like that, sometimes you don’t get everything you want. I can do better next time. Next time, maybe I will pass," Yebra told GMA News Online in a phone interview Thursday, after the Supreme Court released the list of successful examinees. Yebra, along with the 4,846 other law graduates, took the examinations on four Sundays of September last year, or days after the August 23 hostage crisis in Manila that left eight Hong Kong tourists dead. Yebra, as the chief negotiator in the hostage-taking, admitted that he was "disturbed" when he took the test. He said he was reviewing for the exams when he was asked to testify at the marathon hearings of the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC), the body that looked into the hostage tragedy. The IIRC had initially recommended the initiation of administrative and criminal actions against Yebra, but after reviewing the report, Malacañang recommended only administrative sanctions against him supposedly for "neglect of duty." Malacañang also said Yebra failed to alert his superiors to be ready to take the necessary action when the hostage-taker, dismissed policeman Rolando Mendoz, manifested agitation and violence. - Sophia Dedace/KBK, GMA News