Manila hostages' kin fail to get apology from PHL govt

There will be no apology from the Philippine government to the survivors and families of the victims of last year’s deadly hostage-taking incident in Manila, at least for now. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who met with the survivors and victims’ families on Monday, said she cannot issue an apology on behalf of the Philippine government but instead will relay the request to President Benigno Aquino III. “In all candor, I told them that I'm not in the position to make such an apology on behalf of the government. The President has, in several occasions, already made an expression of regret on what happened," De Lima said. “As to whether this government is prepared to make such a formal apology, that is not something I cannot answer and that is something the Philippines is not minded to do at this point. But nevertheless, I will still relay the request to the President," she added. Eight tourists from Hong Kong were killed in the hostage tragedy, perpetrated by dismissed policeman Rolando Mendoza, who was killed by responding policemen. On Sunday, or three days before the tragedy’s first anniversary, their families and some of the survivors arrived in Manila to seek apology and compensation from the Philippine government. Those who met with De Lima were survivor Lee Ying-Chuen; Lee Mei-Chun, mother of slain tour guide Masa Tse); Tse Chi-Kin and Tse Chi-Hang, Masa's brothers; Lin Siu-Ching, Masa's aunt; Hong Kong legislator James To Kun-Sun; and lawyer Jonathan Man, lawyers for injured victims Chan Kwok Chu and Yik Siu Ling.

Other demands De Lima said she will relay to Aquino the other demands of the Hong Kong visitors, which include the criminal prosecution of senior government officials, monetary compensation for the tragedy, and the implementation of reforms to ensure the safety of tourists. De Lima, who headed the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC) that looked into the hostage tragedy, said she has no capacity to reverse the President's decision on who should be held criminally liable for the bungled rescue of hostages. To recall, Aquino has modified the IIRC's report and absolved some officials like Interior Undersecretary Rico Puno, Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, and then-Philippine National Police (PNP) head Jesus Verzosa. Only the hostage-taker's brother, SPO2 Gregorio Mendoza, was held criminally liable while the other police officers are slapped with administrative charges. "The IIRC has now become functus officio or has ceased to exist after it had fully discharged its mandate, which include the submission of [two reports] as well as the recommendations. So this is just a matter of relaying their request that the President review or reconsider the filing of criminal charges against those that were recommended by the IIRC to be criminally charged," said De Lima. As for the request for monetary compensation, De Lima suggested that "under the Philippine law and justice system, anyone has the right to seek redress by way of damages." "Now, we understand that they would want to avoid a legal process which is protracted and tedious and at times painful and expensive legal process," she added. De Lima said she will relay this request to the President and "that some discussions be made with the end view of granting compensation to the survivors and the families." “Useful" meeting For their part, survivor Lee Ying-Chuen and Hong Kong legislator James To Kun-Sun said that the meeting with De Lima was “useful" because they got more information on how to pursue their demands. "Of course we cannot say we are not satisfied with the result, but at least we know the procedure and hopefully through her [De Lima], we can convince the President to reconsider his position," said the legislator. "I'm not disappointed by the meeting. Actually, I thank the secretary for agreeing to meet with us, for agreeing to meet our demands, particularly our demands the president has refused [to hear]. The meeting itself is very useful. We were provided with more information and she promised to provide updates to us," said Lee. She likewise lamented the supposed pattern of disappointment from the Philippine government. "I would say that from my experience, we have been disappointed many times by the Philippine government. A year ago, while the incident happened, we were disappointed with the bungled and messy operation of the rescue, the assault, the negotiation process," she said. "And after, we were disappointed in the way they treated the bodies of our deceased. The bodies were treated without respect.... We are disappointed and we demand an apology from the Philippine government, the President publicly refused. Again, we are disappointed that he also [failed] to meet with us, he [failed] to have a dialogue with us, to listen to our demands. We've been disappointed many times before, and I do hope we won't be disappointed again," added the survivor. - KBK, GMA News