Philippines tourist bus hijacking crisis - By Nikky Raney

UPDATE: Philstar.com, Filipino news source, tells authorities that at 9:05 pm on August 23, 2010 (9:05 am EST time) the hostage has been ended with several hostages still alive.  Ronaldo Mendoza was killed after local police made their way onto the bus to save hostages. At least four hostages remain alive, two are confirmed dead.

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In the capital city of the Philippines, Manila, former policeman Rolando Mendoza, 33 took a tourist bus hostage on August 23, 2010. (The Philippines is 12 hours ahead of U.S. EST time)

Photo taken from Philippines News

The policeman had been fired a year ago following accusations that he extorted money. He was armed with an M-16 rifle as he hijacked the bus occupied mostly by Chinese nationals. Some of the hostages have been shown crawling from out of the bus.

Rolando released at least nine hostages - three of the freed hostages were Filipinos.

The former officer had placed handcuffs on the actual bus driver, but he managed to escape and jumped through the window saying that everyone inside the bus had died.

Journalists, police and others surrounded the scene, but police prevented the media from getting too near to the bus. The hijacker put two signs on the windows. One said "MEDIA NOW" and the other said "3:00 PM TODAY DEAD LOCK."

He later put up a cardboard sign saying, "BIG MISTAKE TO CORRECT A BIG WRONG DECISION."

The chief of Manila Police District, Rodolfa Magtibay, told media that was at the scene that Mendoza hijacked the bus in order to demand his job back as a police officer. He also warned authorities not to harm his family.

Mendoza's brother, Gregorio Mendoza (also a police officer) arrived at the scene - he informed the media that police were accusing him of being apart of his brother's hijacking. He was taken into custody and shoved into a police car.

Hong Kong officers fled to Manila to help the hostages.

Written by Nikky Raney
Side note: Nikky Raney was born in the Philippines and is half-Filipino.