The Philippine Online Chronicles

On a wet monday night, right in front where Benigno S. Aquino III took his oath of office, a lone gunman, an ex-policeman took the lives of several Hong kong tourists. The act ended not just the lives of those innocent souls but ended too Aquino's honeymoon, plunging the nation into grief and despair.

Both Hong Kong and the Philippines mourn the tragedy.   Across cyberspace grief and outcry is vicious and palpable.

Hysteria and hysterics

The Chinese are grief stricken in their attacks on forums. It borders on hysteria, as if the act was deliberate. Emotions are running high. The Chinese people--- Hong Kong people, are largely misinformed. All they remember was an inept police force raiding the bus. All they can see are the dead that shouldn't have been dead. All they can see are the lives now forever shattered.

Philippine government websites have been attacked. Pages inserted using Chinese characters, demanding compensation to the victims. The attacks on cyberspace is nothing new. Like the police, like tax evasion, and the lack of funds, it takes time to build capacity.

Hong Kong actor Jackie Chan is a voice of reason in a sea of emotions:

What happened to the Hong Kong tourists in the Philippines - being taken hostage and then killed - was a terrible and heartbreaking tragedy. I am 100% Chinese and I’m from Hong Kong. I feel grief and pain for the Hong Kong citizens who lost their lives during this unfortunate incident, and I deeply sympathize with the families who have lost their loved ones. I sincerely hope that those injured during the ordeal will get well soon.

The South China Morning Post editorial was likewise a reminder,

 

Passions are running high, and that is to be expected. Questions abound and we want answers. But the 150,000 Filipinos who live among us in Hong Kong and the untold millions in the Philippines who rely on our business and tourism dollars cannot provide what we want to know. They are as much innocent bystanders to the tragedy as we are and deserve to be treated as such.

 

What I wanted to convey was that I won’t hate Filipino people as a result of this tragic incident. There are several hundred thousand Filipinos working in Hong Kong, and there are quite a few Hong Kong people working in the Philippines as well. If we start hating each other, it will cause great damage to both Hong Kong and the Philippines.

In the Philippines, attacks across cyberspace, and on media have been relentless. The critics are coming out of hibernation. They are coming out with a vengeance. Constructive criticism is one thing but emotions are running high. Most these critics of the administration, armed at times with hysteria and hysterics, and short on facts and rationality are pontificating before a public that result in neither bringing out the facts, nor helping build capacity.

The Germans have a word for it. Schadenfreude.

Some say this government's agents are arrogant. A call by Hong Kong leader to Aquino was supposedly been snubbed. Never mind that there are diplomatic protocols in place. Never mind that Manila deals with Beijing because Hong Kong is part of the People's Republic of China. Have we forgotten so easily the last administration's panache for arrogance?

Never mind if this government is 60 days old. Never mind that it was voted into power precisely because institutions are broken that at the root of these problems is corruption that has eaten at the foundations. Never mind if the deficit is huge. Never mind that the problems uncovered have persisted for years and only now are we paying for the price of that mismanagement.

The critics seem shocked to discover how broke our police force is. It is nothing new that ordinary citizens grappling with everyday.

The hardline critics have also forgotten that taking a bus is one of the hardest things for Police to accomplish, even on a good day where they have all the tools and training at their disposal and second only to taking back a plane from a hostage taker.

The state of the Filipino nation remain the same. Aquino's critics think he has magic powers that can simply change the world in a blink of an eye. That somehow this government doesn't know the depth nor scope of the problem.

Rene Azurin wrote recently,

"One suspects that the Aquino campaign’s storyline about him being the virtuous white knight who would lead a crusade to bring the nation to the "daang matuwid (straight path)" makes those who’ve joined his government feel particularly special and imbued with a sense of holy purpose. Maybe this is what makes them feel holier than the rest of us. Well, all of us certainly hope that they succeed in this crusade. We can also hope, however, that the sense-of-superiority virus doesn’t spread and they don’t all end up looking down on the rest of us while marching along. Perhaps those with bloated egos and inflated notions of their own worth can rise like hot-air balloons into the blue sky and disappear from our view."

Honeymoon is over and this is the first major stumble of the administration.

Hostage-taker Mendoza's story unfolding New evidence is coming into light as to the exact circumstance that led to Mendoza going berserk.

In interview over ANC, Manila Vice Mayor recounted the events leading up to it. Earlier in the day, the hostage taker Mendoza had released his captives. Armed with some measure of success, Manila Vice Mayor Moreno travelled to Quezon City to personally request assistance from the Ombudsman.

A letter was given, expressing that the Ombudsman herself will be reviewing the case. Armed with the letter, Vice Mayor Moreno goes back to Manila.

On arrival, Moreno, the police, the chief negotiator, Manila Mayor Lim and Mendoza's brother were gathered. The letter is read. The authorities asked Mendoza's brother if the letter could help. The reply was in the affirmative.

The chief negotiator and the brother headed into the bus, to handover the letter. Mendoza was on his cellphone. He was reading the letter, and that someone said that the letter could not help him. That the letter was a piece of garbage.

As the chief negotiator and the brother turned their backs, hostage taker Mendoza started firing.

All hell broke lose.

Mendoza's brother was arrested having encouraged the hostage taker from not disarming. He was arrested as a conspirator.

Mendoza's sim card is in the possession of the authorities. They are hunting down whomever gave Mendoza the idea that that letter was a piece of garbage.

There are conspirators in this incident. The events leading up to the hostage taking would be vital in understanding why this incident took place. The events leading up to Mendoza going nuts is most important in solving this case.

The nation is broken and this government is barely holding it at the seams.

There have been lapses during the botched hostage negotiation. The government of course carrying a sizable burden. So far as it seem, the police followed protocol. The biggest blunder was not partnering with the media. Now an industry needs some soul searching on how they conduct their accounting of events. The act of contrition though is slow and quite possibly never in coming.

Only a careful understanding of the circumstances leading up to the hostage taking, and the events leading up to Mendoza going berserk, can bring closure to two nations.

This is a broken nation. The people know this to be true. It was a fact before Mendoza went nuts. It became more potent when he succeeded in killing all those innocent people.

Incapacity and Corruption

Nothing has changed. The reason why Aquino came to power remains a valid one, at the heart of it is what Bill Clinton calls, "incapacity." In a speech Clinton gave before TED, he said,

"It has been my experience in working in developing countries that while the headlines may all be -- the pessimistic headlines may say, well, we can't do this or the other thing because of corruption, I think incapacity is a far bigger problem in poor countries than corruption, and feeds corruption."

That's we have here now.  Incapacity.   There is a finite number of resources that the nation has.   The current administration is operating on the budget submitted by the past administration.   The trick now, how to get the too few resources the government has and get the biggest bang for the buck.   This amidst a sea of corruption that must be fixed.

The critics are bringing their own worst fears to light--- deep down expecting miracles from this Aquino, finding only fault, often disingenuous about where the nation is.  Yet, our nation is a democracy and like it or not the critics have a right to voice their opinion and it is our duty as Filipinos to defend that right even when at times it may seem they have nothing new to add and even when criticism seem like a bad bout of Schadenfreude.   The media too.  Would it be too much to ask for an honest understanding of the state of the nation on the road to fix a broken nation?

Image via Yahoo!