Rated PG by blog admin
Hostage-taker’s last, live audio interview minutes before he shot hostages, Manila
i know that many people, especially, our Chinese brothers and sisters are still grieving.
Murder committed anywhere should be met with justice. This audio recording may help in that effort. Our condolences to the bereaved. Hopefully, this recording will help in the gathering of evidence to exact accountability.
This is the live audio interview of hostage-taker Rolando Mendoza minutes and seconds before he started shooting and killing the hostages, conducted by RMN (Radio Mo Nationwide, or Your Nationwide Radio), or rather, a news report of another agency with embedded RMN recording. I authenticated this by comparing it with the transcript of the interview of hostage-taker Rolando Mendoza by RMN, which it submitted to the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas (KBP, Broadcasters’ Guild of the Philippines) this week, as published in newspapers today. They’re the same (the transcript as submitted to KBP and this audio recording) except that the radio interview doesn’t contain the “Erwin” lines or dialog. The audio interview however is infinitely “more alive” or vivid than the transcript and should be listened to; and (just my opinion) should have been submitted together with the transcript. The transcript doesn’t capture at all the agitation, blind rage, uncontrollability, volatility, and desperation, of the hostage-taker. This occurs at running time 4:20 of the upload. You’ll have to listen to this to be able to see, in your mind, what happened inside the bus that Monday evening. You could almost feel the blood rushing to the hostage-taker’s head from this audio recording. (uploaded by myjirr in YouTube, posted here non-commercially, as part of the review above, and for academic purposes)
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MICHAEL ROGAS: Captain Rolando Mendoza, good evening, sir…
CAPT. ROLANDO MENDOZA: Good evening, sir.
MICHAEL: This is Michael Rogas from RMN. Sir, you are the hostage taker, is it right?
MENDOZA: Right, sir.
MICHAEL: What is your plan at this juncture, sir?
x x x x x
(The ever hopeful Mendoza reads aloud the Ombudsman’s letter upon the request of Rogas. Note that Mendoza is already in personal contact with Orlando Yebra, the chief negotiator.)
MENDOZA: x x x x x…for me this is trash, this letter is trash! This is not what I need!
MICHAEL: Ok, what’s your plan, sir? Now that your demand was not met…
MENDOZA: For me this is trash, this is not what I need. What I need is their decision, reversing or not reversing (my dismissal). That’s it! Thank you for the effort of the mayor and the vice mayor, I don’t need that letter, sir.
MICHAEL: What is your plan now, sir, what do you want?
MENDOZA: There’s nothing in that (letter), nothing, none whatsoever, sir. It only says a review will be done. In effect, nothing will come of it, nothing, sir. That paper is nothing to me, if it said (I am) dismissed already, nothing will happen as a result (of that letter), sir.
MICHAEL: Captain, what’s your plan now, sir?
MENDOZA (addressing Yebra): This one, I’ll make an example of this one, step aside, go away…I don’t need that (letter), sir, that letter has nothing to say…you, you’re a lawyer…there’s nothing in that (letter)!
MICHAEL: Captain, wait, please calm down.
MICHAEL: Captain, take it easy, sir…What’s your plan now, sir, inasmuch as your demand was not granted, we will call the Ombudsman at this point in time.
MENDOZA: Most likely something bad will happen inside this bus.
MICHAEL: Wait, through us, RMN (live radio broadcast), what is your request (from the authorities)?
x x x x x
—–
Clearly, the negotiator failed MISERABLY in his job as he wasn’t able to frame a “yes-able” proposition to the hostage taker. Imagine asking an already impatient (Read: pissed off) gunman to still wait for a review???
And adding insult to injury had the temerity to “lie” to the hostage taker (borne by his incoordination with assistant negotiator Romeo Salvador who promised to return the brother’s handgun and the extreme error of bringing along the brother whose presence is already suspect the first time this brother appeared on the scene)???
Nonetheless, I believe a re-negotiation can still be done with a new…this time, trustworthy…negotiator.
All demands of Mendoza are negotiable even up to the last minute: the primary demand (reinstatement) and the instant demands (pullout of the snipers, withdrawal of the SWAT team seen deploying, and stopping the arrest of his brother – regardless if Mendoza saw the “manhandling” on TV).
If only the events were not overtaken by Rogas’ so-called “interview.” If only Rogas didn’t “harass” Mendoza. If only Rogas didn’t “promise” an effective communication to authorities. If only Rogas didn’t put upon himself and RMN the task of mediating the hostage taker’s demands…
If only RMN (through Jake Maderazo) alerted the police early on the “interview” of their ongoing talks with Mendoza…
If only Mendoza was given an opportunity of a TRUE DIALOGUE, then none of the innocents are dead today.
—–
Quote of the Year:
“The interview by (radio reporter) Michael Rogas gave the hostages an extra few hours to live,” Pimentel, a former senator, told the station.
http://business.inquirer.net/money/topstories/view/20100921-293504/Radio-rejects-hostage-phone-hogging-allegations
—–
The politicians and the police are accountable but those irresponsible members of media, by virtue of their constitutionally-protected primary right to press freedom, are NOT. The most they will get, if ever found guilty of Grave Offense (first time) by the “self-regulatory” body of the KBP – the KBP Standards Authority – is a Php15,000 fine plus reprimand (Rogas and Tulfo) and Php30,000 fine plus censure (RMN).
If the whole picture of the culminating events of the August 23 Hostage Incident will not be understood then those irresponsible members of media will continue with their irresponsibility…”only doing their jobs,” as they are mouthing what they did, with clean hands…when all the while they are bloodied by their insatiable hunger for news and their unquenchable thirst for fame!
—–
Media vilifying media should probably be a part of SELF-REGULATION.
http://manilatimes.net/index.php/opinion/26840-vilifying-themselves
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