Category: The News Media

color of the day, Criminal law, media law, Rules of Court, The News Media

the lucky color today is magenta

The morning show astrologer said the lucky color of the day was magenta or red violet. Perfect! It goes well withbits of soil on scraped skin; will be color-coordinated today. This was from two days ago; i did not post about it, and then had a miscommunication about what could not be pressed. i shouldn’t have to talk about everything.  (hematomas and bruises on limbs on certain days of the month are normal for me; if on limbs, normal; if not on limbs but on the face – call the police). This one however occurred when the skin came in contact with the ground, involuntarily. this happens sometimes when the path is muddy and you decide to run on rocks, if the rocks are of a smaller width than your feet, they will roll when the feet land on them, and then you will find some particles of the ground mixing with the surface of  the knee;  blabber-blabber. Lots of admissions yesterday on the hostage-taking crisis: “hindi ko sya pinaaresto” (“i did not order his arrest (the hostage-taker’s brother),” said Manila Mayor Lim of Dirty Harry fame;  “ang sabi ko lang (“what i said was”), “dalhin na yan sa presinto” (rough translation: “bring him to the police station,” or, “haul him to the police station,” or, “roll him down until he gets to the police station.”) o sige, kayo mag-translate, baka kung ano pa masabi ko. (okay, why don’t you translate it, be right back). Happy weekend!


breaking news, Criminal law, media law, News, The News Media

Hostage-taking in Manila

Hostage-taking in Manila

i know the police know the protocol in hostage-taking situations. This protocol- playbook is uniform and internationally practised/ recognized; and so, i never Monday- quarterback hostage-taking situations. (when the hostage-taker started shooting inside the bus, the breach, by protocol, was necessary; on the other hand, the daytime early negotiations done by the book, resulting in the release of more than half-a-dozen hostages, to the credit of the local officials, went well; this however leaves us with the 7:20pm spectacle, which resulted in disaster, leaving eight hostages dead). Since the 7:20pm fiasco involved media facilities, maybe i’m allowed to Monday- quarterback that.

The police did not manage the hostage-taker’s access to media facilities; nor to who else was communicating with him from the outside. At worst, the police did not know the hostage-taker had access to television and what kind of media/ communication facilities the bus had.

Because of the mismanagement of the hostage-taker’s access to media facilities and various communication lines and to the media, the hostage-taker viewed the spectacle of his brother, and young nephews and nieces, on the floor, being roughed up by the police in television news blow-by-blow; was enraged, and started shooting. The usual practice is that individuals who are allowed to talk to the hostage-taker are also secured, and their media-interviews, managed. These went south today.

i will not Monday- quarterback the warrantless arrest of the brother even if that involved legal issues because this was a hostage-taking situation maybe he had to be restrained because earlier he reportedly further inflamed his brother- hostage-taker when he allegedly told his brother- hostage-taker “don’t give up until they return my gun to me”; the situation became more volatile when the grappling and scuffle occurred, because the hostage-taker could see it in full, living color on TV. (for that matter, the so-called “arrest” was such a show of bruteness it shouldn’t have been done in such manner but i’m trying not to second-guess that at this time because the hostages’ lives were on the line).

Even with the tried-and-tested hostage-taking protocol-playbook, the police might have missed out on something. Teeny-weeny. The terrain. The terrain is not just Quirino grandstand. It’s the bus. They didn’t research it; what facilities it had inside and outside.They also didn’t manage who else and how many were talking to him from the outside. (okay, i limited myself to media facilities; this incident has a whole a lot of legal and ethical issues — maybe another day.)