Rotten Mango - #271: Hong Kong Tourists Trapped In Bus With Unhinged Man Who Tries To Kill Them One By One

Episode Date: June 22, 2023

11 hours - 25 hostages. An unhinged man had boarded a Hong Kong tour bus and started waving his rifle around. He told them if everyone stayed still and did what he said he would not kill them. He lied. For 11 hours, the bus was parked in the middle of the busy street. Police, media, journalists, and civilians were all surrounding the bus. The hostage negotiators were in charge of preventing loss of life, but they would make mistake after mistake that would cost lives. All everyone could wonder from the outside was - will those poor hostages live? Or will they die? Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rambles. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are, whenever we need it, download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier or pay to description starting at 12.99 per month. This is taking place in Manila in the Philippines. Mrs. Lee is a tourist from Hong Kong. She gets off the tour bus and she's kind of holding her hand to her stomach. So

she was with this huge tour van and they're going from tourist attraction to tourist attraction, they get off the bus, they look around, take some pictures, get back on the bus. Now all day she had been feeling so queasy. She just wants to like throw up and she finally convinces the bus controller to letter off to get some fresh air. She had been with the same group for several days now and they were on their final stop. They're last stop, their final destination in the Philippines before heading back home. She and her husband, Mr. Lee,

they always really liked the Philippines. So to give you some context, they were actually here in the Philippines 40 years ago for their honeymoon. And now they were back 40 years later and they were part of this tour group. This trip was bringing back a ton of memories, especially as they would watch the younger couples

get onto the bus, they're like, oh my God, that used to be us 40 years ago. We used to have that much energy. They would see all the little kids getting on the bus and they would think of their kids when they were so young. And it was just kind of like this, this whole some moment. So 40 years ago, that means they're in like 60s?

Yeah, they're a little older. They're one of the older couples on this bus But they were still kicking with a lot of energy So they're having a blast, but she steps out of the bus. It's August. It's hot humid. The manila air is suffocating she takes one step She hears the bus doors close behind her. She doesn't look back. She takes another step away from the bus. Two steps, three steps. And after a little while, she felt two people grab her by the arms on both sides of her. She's screaming at the two men that dragged her into the crowd, please, you have to let me get on that bus. My husband is on that bus. Now, the two

people that had been dragging her into the crowd were police officers. They were hostage negotiators. The crowd was filled with other officers, federal agents, government officials, journalists, reporters, news stations, civilians. There was a massive circle just surrounding this bus. And inside was Mr. Lee, Mrs. Lee's husband, but also a bunch of innocent tourist passengers and an unhinged gunman. She was let out in the middle of a hostage situation. There was no way that the officers were going to let her get back on that bus. She was lucky to even be let out. She said that she had a stomach ache. The bus controller, the hostage taker, let her out for a second. And now that's it. She was not going to

be rejoining her husband on that bus. And she was very lucky. I mean, many of the passengers, many of the innocent tourists, I mean, everyone on that bus, their innocent, they did not ask for anything like this. And they would end up dying on that bus. This is the story of the Manila bus hijacking and there are so many wild parts about this case. I mean, the fact that it happened in general is wild, the way the negotiations were handled is mind-boggling and lastly, even afterwards, when a full-scale diplomatic relations disaster is taking place, many netizens would sympathize with the killer. Yeah, some said that the killer was innocent, some said that he was also a victim.

Why would they even think that? And just the way that this hostage negotiation takes place, usually I feel like a lot of tension when I talk about hostage negotiations. This one's even weirder because everyone is crowding around the bus. There's like no established perimeter. So the bus is just in the middle of a very busy area and there's civilians journalists just all around the bus. Like there's no tapes and fence. But inside the bus is just an utter chaos. So as always full show notes are available at RottenMangoPodcast.com. This has been a highly requested case

and our Filipino researcher has been working really hard to assist in putting the story together for you guys. But as always, with foreign cases, if there's anything that was missed, something else you want covered, something lost in translation, let us know in the comments. And with that being said, let's get into it.

Which side note, if you're researching this, I just wanna put a quick disclaimer that the crime scene photos are very, very easy to pop up. Like, if you go to Google images, it's incredibly graphic and it's right there. I mean, so please be aware of that. If you are a little bit queasy, it's really bad. Now, there was another woman on that bus and her name is Mrs. Yeek, Y-I-K. Now, when her son was young, she said the hardest part was, her son could not look her in the face. I mean, he was terrified of her face. She almost always exclusively wore a face mask around her kids,

because whenever they would see her bare face, they would get scared. She said that she's had 30 operations, she is more scheduled, but nothing seems to work. There's a hole on the right side of her jaw where saliva and pus will often leak out. That's where she was shot. And she would feel the rush of adrenaline and the trauma that would just come piling back to her. The feeling of being shot, but pretending to play dead so that she could make it back home to her family, she would have flashbacks to when she was back on that bus.

Her only comfort in life was that as her son started to grow up, he had actually sat her down one day and said, Mom, that's okay. I know that you went on a tour for vacation and you were shot by a really bad person. It was a very, very bad person, but what she and the others did not know at the time was that there was more than one bad person, but what she and the others did not know at the time was

that there was more than one bad person at the scene that day. According to the United States Department of Justice, hostage takers can be grouped into three vague categories. So, apparently, when you get into the categories, there are subcategories within, and then you even can distinguish each hostage taker by their negotiation tactic. Are they avoidant negotiators? Are they accommodating negotiators? So this is really just a general vague idea

for the three categories. The first one, professional criminals. These are typically the easiest to handle for the police. They want a plea deal. They want money. They want an out. Their motivations are rather clear. And as long as everyone's interests are aligned,

it's almost like a business transaction. And like I said, this category can further be distinguished by a fleeing criminal who got stuck in a hostage situation, and now the hostages are his only bargaining chip, and they're trying to get their way out of the crime. Maybe it's an institutionalized or incarcerated person, right, so there's subcategories.

The second vague category is the terrorist groups. These are kind of harder to deal with in terms of hostage situations. Typically, they're total dedication to their cause and their high level of skill in promoting their ideologies. It makes them very unreasonable. It makes them unpredictable and that is the most dangerous thing in a hostage situation. It is an unpredictable hostage taker. They're willing to go to extremes to prove a point that most people may not

be able to resonate with. Then lastly, you have the quote psychotics. These are for a lack of a better word, the unhinged hostage takers. They're even more unpredictable. Typically they require a lot of lengthy, extensive involvement with psychologists or psychiatrists with the hostage negotiators. Their emotions are unstable, they can quickly, very quickly become trigger happy because you don't really know

going in what their motivation is. Many would argue that the killer in today's case would fit into the last category, unhinged and unpredictable. The tour group was loading up for the last leg of their trip. The bus driver was blasting the AC because like I said, it's hot, humid and sticky, like the trifecta of a tropical climate. And the driver never really interacted with the passengers much because he is a Filipino and all the passengers, they don't speak tag-a-log, but he was hired by the tour company to drive them from different tourist sites in Manila. So he was with them for multiple days, and anytime the tourists would board the bus or

get off, they would greet him, they would thank him for his, you know, show furring, and they all had like a nice pleasant relationship. Now all they needed to do was a quick head count, and they would be off to their very last location. It's almost like a bittersweet moment, you know? Inside the bus, there were 20 tourists, tourists mostly from Hong Kong in varying ages. So you got young children to older vacationers, like the Lee family, and then additionally you had a tour guide from Hong Kong and four Filipino citizens including the bus driver. Okay. So you have 25 people, okay? And then there was a man outside.

Now the vacationers had passed by him to board the bus. It almost looked like he was guarding the bus. It was kind of interesting. There was nothing about him though, that was alarming or unsettling in any way. Most of them believed him to be some sort of security. He was wearing a police uniform holding a rifle. Now, it didn't seem that out of place in Manila.

So they were like, okay, like maybe he's escorting us to the last location, maybe the last location is a little bit more well protected, well surveillance. I don't know. It's a little unexpected, but it's not like, oh, what is that guy doing here? Even the bus driver seem chill. So he looks like a cop. Yeah. So the last passenger gets onto the bus and the man outside that's very clearly heavily armed stood in the doorway, preventing the door from closing, and he asked the bus driver, can I have a ride? Now, the driver is feeling sympathy, it's very hot day outside, but he's like, I got

a politely declined, like I'm sorry, I'm driving a privately owned bus, it's not like a city bus, or a metro, so my buses would, they would fire me if I just let random people ride. I'm so sorry. So he tries to close the door, but the man stood there and refused to move. He won't let the door close. So everyone's kind of like, what's going on? Because everyone can hear the door trying to close and he's blocking it and everyone just

kind of goes silent like, this is weird. So then he steps into the bus and he says close the door. So the bus driver closes the door because he's looking at his rifle. He's like, I'm not going to not listen to this man. And effectively, he's locking all 25 of them with an unhinged man with a loaded gun inside the bus. The man starts kind of screaming at the passengers. Close the blinds, everyone close the blinds. The local guide that had been helping translate to the group translated everything that the man was yelling to the group. And for a split moment, I mean everyone was so shocked that they didn't even move. The parents snapped out of it for the sake of

their kids and maybe if we do everything we're told he's not gonna hurt us or at least he won't hurt the kids right. So they're scrambling, they're closing the curtains and the blinds on this bus and once they were done It's just utter silence Anticipation of like what is going to happen next Everyone's minds are racing on possible outcomes people noticed a couple of things that they pointed out later The first being that when he was screaming close the blinds close the blinds something about it was very rehearsed But it didn't have the power in his chest It didn't seem like he was a seasoned

criminal that he did this frequently. It felt like this, he was almost nervous for this. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, because nerves are a very explosive emotion as well. So everyone's going, running through the possible outcomes of a situation like this, and I think many of them felt the tiniest bit of relief when the armed man started apologizing to everyone. He kept saying he was sorry. He kept telling the translator, I never wanted to do this to them. Just make sure they know. I don't want to do this to them. I just need the police to listen to me. To listen to what happened to me. Look, I don't want to hurt anyone here. As long as everyone cooperates, everything's going to be okay. So the translator lets the passengers know what's going on

and the gunman would occasionally even smile at the group. Like not a big unhinged smile, but like a very like, like sorry, kind of smile. He seemed polite, and whenever people seemed to get anxious, he would reassure everyone, he would tell the translator, hey tell them I have no intention of hurting them. So like just calm down, we're gonna be okay. Okay, so again, it's like maybe this is, and you have to think that these

are people from Hong Kong, they might have assumed that this is some sort of attack because of where they're from, because of who they are. It's a tourist bus. I mean, it's very random. So he's like, it's not about you guys. Trust me. It's just, I'm sorry, it had to be you. One tourist would even later say, after we heard his explanation about just wanting to get the police's attention, we didn't really think we were in danger. I mean, it's not like he was demanding a billion dollars from the cops in a pet unicorn. He just said he wanted the police to hear him out. That's it.

I felt like everything could be very easily solved. But unfortunately, not everyone was going to get out alive. The armed man instructed the bus driver to take everyone to a very famous part of Manila, the grandstand. This is where Filipino presidents get inaugurated. Yeah. The bus driver was instructed to park just in the middle of the road leading up to it, and from there in front of civilians, reporters, news anchors, police, federal agents, they

would be held hostage. It looks straight out of a movie set. If you see pictures of the crime scene, there's like a bus. There's not really an established perimeter, like a piece of tape or anything, but people are keeping somewhat of a distance, and it's just a crowd of people around, and it looks like a movie set. Like people are just hovering inside the bus. Yeah.

Imagine being held hostage in a bus with an armed man. And if you just peek outside the window, you can see a whole crowd of people forming. And they'll know what's going on inside that bus. They know you can't leave the bus. But it's dangerous, too. Yes. You can easily shoot.

Fire out. Yeah. You hope that these people standing outside watching are trying to help you from the outside. But from inside the bus, there's not much that you can do. You're trapped. You're literally center stage and you know that everyone outside the bus is staring into you thinking the same exact thing, which is will they live or will they die?

And what year was this? 2010. And at the end of the 11th hour, people will die. So start the clocks. The bus driver parked the bus and he kept it running. They needed the AC. Right now it's about 9.50 AM, and the weather is only going to get hotter throughout the day.

Meanwhile, the tourists are all kind of glancing around at each other, and they're probably taking inventory of who's by the exits. What do we need to help in escaping the children, the elderly, they're going to need some assistance. Some of the kids would start crying and their parents were frantically trying to hush them because even though they felt somewhat relieved that this guy wasn't completely unhinged, they felt like they didn't know if any sound or any noise like crying would trigger this man.

You don't know truly the mental state of anyone. He had way too many weapons to take that kind of risk. So they all just sat there eyes wide and they start watching this man continuing to arm himself further. He pulled out more guns, boxes upon boxes of ammo. The ones on the bus who knew guns would know that he's holding an M16 assault rifle. It had a firing rate of 45 to 60 rounds on a semi-automatic model and close to 1,000 rounds per minute on a cyclic-sustained model. He had all that on him? Yes. If this man becomes trigger-happy, it is all over for them.

Like just the firing rate of that rifle is honestly insane. Our one, the man walks over to the bus driver and handcuffs him to the steering wheel. The Hong Kong tour office is informed that the tourists have been taken as hostages, authorities are informed and they rush to the scene, but they keep their distance. So as of now, all they know is that everyone inside that bus is still alive.

Now it's up to the hostage negotiators to keep it that way. That's their whole drop. So two of the negotiators, they's up to the hostage negotiators to keep it that way. That's their whole drop. So two of the negotiators, they arrived promptly to the scene. We've got super-intendant Orlando Urba and Chief Inspector Romeo Salvador. They were able to get the bus drivers phone number and through that the negotiators asked to speak with the hostage taker himself and they even actually approached the bus. And that's when it all clicked. Why this man was doing this, who he was. One of the negotiators, Salvador,

he stood there staring and he said, the hostage taker, that's an old colleague of mine. He's a former police officer. Did they know each other? Yes. This man, the hostage taker was one of the top police officers in the nation. What the hell was he doing? The demand was quite simple.

He said, I'm gonna let everyone go if I can just have my old job back. He wanted to be a police officer again. He had been let go of and now he wants to back. Listen, not a great way to apply for a job if you ask me. The hostage taker is a man named Rolando Mendoza. He was 55 years old at the time of the incident, and he was a former police senior inspector. He was well-respected, highly decorated. His colleagues, family, friends, I mean, nobody that knew him had anything bad to say about him. Everyone said he's the kind of police

officer that you would want working on your case, or even like pulling you over. He was kind, he's a very fair man, with a very generous heart. I just, he's one of the good ones. And he was incredibly intelligent. He got his bachelor's in criminology from the Philippine College of Criminology.

He received about 10 outstanding policemen of the Philippines awards. I mean, he was really, really good at his job. In fact, being a police officer, it kind of ran in his family. So his brother was on the police force. Mendoza's nephew would also follow along in the family footsteps. And alongside Mendoza's very prosperous career, he had a wife, three children that were now adults at the time of the hijacking, and his youngest son would actually be a deputy

chief officer in a different police force. Like they're all cops currently. Yeah, pretty much they're like all cops, except for Mendoza. That was fired a year before this hostage taking. He was let go one year ago. So the whole thing was around the time of the bus hostage taking, he was going to retire. That was his plan. He was going to retire from the police force in about a year. And since he was such a highly valued official that worked for the government, he was eligible for a very comfortable pension. Look, it's not like winning the lottery, but it would be a very good living, and he would be comfortable for the remainder of his life. However, this would all change when Mendoza and four of his colleagues were fired from the police force and stripped of all their benefits, current and future like pension gone.

And it all began in 2008 with a viral email. The email was viewed millions of times by netizens who were enraged. They wanted action, they wanted answers, they wanted someone to pay, they wanted someone to go down and they were not going to stop until someone was on the ground. So two years ago, Mendoza and his team of officers arrested a man named Christian Kala for illegal parking and driving. Upon his release, Christian's dad sent out an email blast to every outlet reporter journalist that he could think of to share this information with, and he said the most horrible thing had

happened to his son while he was detained by the police officers. According to Christian, he went to his cousins to pick up his laptop. So he parks in front of his cousins condo building and he's just going to run inside and grab his belongings. But when he gets back to his car, he said that according to the email, there was a whole team of policemen just waiting by his car. Hey, this is a no parking zone. Christians looking around like, okay, if that's the case, why are there so many other cars parked here? It's alleged that the police did not listen to his response and they just demanded that he pop open his trunk.

They wanted to search his vehicle. And he's like, well, if you want to search my vehicle, then you can get a search warrant. It stated that Christian refused, but the situation escalated to the point where he was, quote, forced to obey. The officers searched inside of his car and allegedly pocket 3,000 pesos that was inside, so about $55.

And then the officer noticed that the plastic ends of a spark plug were left in the trunk and they picked it up and they were like, aha, drug paraphernalia. He's like, that is not... No, that's the opposite. What are you talking about? But to further bolster their own theory, officers found like nearby empty sashits of Shabu, like seasoning, I guess, in the vehicle, and they started screaming at each other that they found drugs.

So like, it's drugs, it's drugs, we found drugs. And he's like, what are you talking about? He was arrested at 10 1030 in the morning. Now, this is where things get wild in the email and very, very scary. According to the email, the police did not drive Christian to the police station or even to the jail. They drove him to an ATM and demanded he would draw every single penny inside of his account. Christian thankfully did not have any money in his ATM card, so they left with no cash and they went back to the police headquarters.

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Like trust me. You can call my employer, get my recent results, or do one right now. The email alleged that the police officers ignored him. Instead, they grabbed a baggy of methamphetamines that they personally had and tried to get him to swallow it. The email stated Christian refused for as long as he could, but they beat him so badly

that he wet his pants from the utter fear. Christian had no choice but to give in and he swallowed the meth. According to the email, allegedly, the cops said, well now we're going to see if you test negative. Now, again, back to the email, Christian was said to have been kept by the police for a full 12 hours, being straight up abused and extorted by the police officers. They would say things to him like, you need to pay us $3,600 in order to be let go. The email stated, Christian was allowed one phone call, so he reached out to his friend, asking to bring any sort of cash that he could have and Christian would pay him back. They bought $400 in cash, and it was enough for the dirty cops.

They let Christian go. Christian called his parents the next day and his dad was so in rage, so upset that he wrote this email trying to draw attention to what is going on in their country, to the cops that did this to his precious son. The captain of the group was named in the email as Mendoza. When Netizens read this email, there was this anger that was unlocked from within, not only because the email itself was so explosive and scandalous, but the allegations were really freaking bad.

This type of thing was happening to Filipinos everywhere, though. So much so that there's even a name for it called Juli Dopp, Juli means arrest, and Dopp is like slang for hold up or a stick up. So it's like when cops arrest you and are like, I'm gonna let you go if you pay me. It's like a fake arrest, just so that they can get money. Basically, extortion from innocence of aliens. So this email blows up. Everyone starts referring to the shady cops as quote, Manila's finest

and public pressure forces officials to at least investigate. The police force found Christian and convinced him to file an official complaint and press charges against the offending officers. All of that sounds normal, right? I mean, I could see this play out in the US too. But there's a few strange things about this case. It took Christian seven weeks to be convinced by authorities to file charges, and you could argue that he didn't want to live through the trauma that would be this trial, but it gets weirder. Stories start twisting and turning. Christian's official affidavit that was done after the email blast

and after he was finally convinced to press charges, the affidavit was very different from the original email. The email was violent abuse at the hands of cops. The original affidavit was more or less standard arrest with a few minor. Ah, that's a bit shady moments. There was not a single accusation of physical abuse, physical threatening, or meth in the official affidavit.

Okay. In addition to that, there was a record of the police bringing Christian in for a medical exam at the local hospital the day of his arrest towards the end, like at the end of the night. So after he allegedly spent all day being physically abused by the police, he was brought into the hospital. The doctor did not find any apparent physical injuries. All very strange, right? So the public was split in two different groups. One was saying, of course, Christian would not say that in the official affidavit, because he's scared. He's

probably being pressured by the cops right now. Guess who's investigating the cops? The cops. So yeah, I could see that. The doctor's probably in on it. You think the police just go to any random doctor? They're probably good at ones that they can trust, especially if they've done something. This is all a massive cover-up.

Then you had another group of men as in saying, I don't know. I think the whole Christian thing is weird. Some people were saying, you know what it sounds like? It sounds like a kid that's scared to tell their parents they got arrested and maybe made up a story to make it easier on them and didn't think that their parents would take it that far.

So people were very split, but because of the public pressure and the due process, the trial continues on and when the day of the trial comes around, Christian was a no-show. Not only is he a no-show for the trial, he just never follows back up or attends any of the court hearings related to this case ever again. So now again, you can have a group of netizens saying, yeah, because he's intimidated, maybe the cops threaten him and that's why he's not showing up. The others are saying, yeah, well, I wouldn't show up either if I had lied or exaggerated a little bit. So regardless

in August of 2008 the case was officially dismissed due to failure to prosecute, but to the public they still felt like this is fishy. Why would they dismiss it? There's something fishy going on. They're all protecting each other. So two new investigations were held simultaneously, so we've got three full investigations on this case. All the while, all five policemen were suspended without pay. And in all subsequent investigations and hearings, Christian was a no-show once again, which again is very unusual for the courts in the Philippines.

One of the two subsequent investigations also dismissed this case because of the same reason, quote, failure to prosecute. So now there's just like this one more active investigation occurring. And this was actually by an office that worked directly with the Philippines version of the White House. They primarily focused on official corruption,

government officials, politicians, the police force. They did not need Christian to testify. In early 2009, Mendoza and the other officers were found guilty and were ordered to be dismissed from their positions. Every single one of them responded with a motion for reconsideration which were ignored. So for a while, Mendoza had hope. I mean, he knew that he could straighten this out with the law. That's what his family said. He's like, no, no, I trust the due process. I'm just gonna file an appeal. They're gonna listen to what I have to say and it's gonna make sense and everything will be okay.

Even though he had been suspended for nearly a year without pay, he was just fired completely severing him from any pension. He was feeling very hopeful. So he all of them are saying this never happened? Yes, they're saying we arrested him, but we never physically abused him. You know, we didn't do any of that, we didn't force feed him mad, what is he talking about? Okay. So he starts filing motion after motion, appeal after appeal, he even wrote handwritten grievance letters to the office to allow him and his co-accused to bring forth their defense.

So this type of investigation was not really like a trial. They weren't allowed to testify. They weren't really allowed to give their side of the story. It was like an internal investigation. And they were like, yeah, it happened. Anyway, done. You're fired. Mendoza said, I'd given my life to the police force.

I mean, my everything to the police force. Even my son is giving his life to the police force. I mean, my everything to the police force. Even my son is giving his life to the police force. My brother did the same thing. Police just listened to what I have to say. I mean, I have a relatively clean record for the past decade. Like, what is going on? According to those who knew Mendoza, it's not even the reversal of the decision he wanted.

He just wanted a chance to a fair trial to defend himself. Give his side of the story. Present his side of the evidence. That never happened. In fact, when he tried to file for an appeal, one of the officials asked him for money, basically tried to extort him in this whole case that was very centered around anti-corruption. They were like, yeah, I'll, I'll finally appeal if you give me $20,000. So this is a debate that has polarized the Philippines. I mean, he had accolades, character witnesses who were in law enforcement themselves. He had awards, he had a relatively clean history.

He was, um, to some, an innocent man being framed by a corrupt system that doesn't advocate for their own. To some. That's what a lot thought. They were convinced that he was innocent, and others felt that he was very guilty. That doesn't advocate for their own. To some. That's what a lot thought. They were convinced that he was innocent and others felt that he was very guilty. But none of that mattered because he was going to do whatever, whatever it took to get the police and the nation to listen to him.

Because now he's inside of a bus pointing his rifle at a group of horrified tourists. Now it is speculated that he chose tourists because the country of the Philippines would be less likely to be sympathetic if he had chosen Filipino citizens. And it's not because they're from Hong Kong. I don't think that he had anything against Hong Kong, but just they're not Filipinos. You know, no, near the back of the bus, many of the tourists, they start to speak to each other under their breath.

How should we do it? Okay, they had seen Mendoza open the bus doors and stand on the steps at least a few times to talk to the negotiators, and they all thought the same thing. They just wanna race up behind him, kick him out. Many of them even rehearse the move in their mind. They're like, okay, I'm gonna have to kick him really hard, but I can't lose my balance.

And then, but the problem is, their concern was and their whispering about this. Once we kick him, we have no way to communicate with the bus driver to tell him to close the door and drive, drive, drive. What if he doesn't, and he opens fire towards the bus driver and everyone inside? Right, so we, I mean, it needs to be well coordinated. Or at worse, what if he starts shooting into the crowd outside? In every situation that they ran in their heads, innocent lives were at stake. So they all casually, but slowly, you know, trying not to draw attention to themselves, scanned their eyes

around the seats to see if there was anything like any weapon that they could use against him. They would mutter under their breasts. If we can just get a few guys to hold him down. Maybe one of the women can try and disarm him. Grab all of his weapons. But always it came down to. There's kids on the bus. We can't risk the gun accidentally firing and hitting someone. Especially a kid. So they sat there analyzing every micro facial expression on Mendoza's face. I mean, they had no idea for how long they would have to endure this and how long before his patients ran out. Once in a while, they would sneak a peek outside the blinds and see the authorities as well as this massive crowd gathered around the bus. Like, not only directly outside,

imagine there's like an invisible wall because no one wants to get that close because there's a gunman on board but they're just all standing around in a giant circle. It was clear though right the authorities are working on it. Maybe it's the safest if we just let them do their jobs. I mean right because he's not even asking for a lot. Yeah he's asking for his old job back. Yeah so we should just stay quiet, not cause any trouble, and the authorities will protect us. Why can't they just agree and then like negotiate? So he wanted an official legal letter, like a binding contract, which I don't know why you can't just forge my imagination and my googling tells me if a hostage negotiator that works for the police forges or goes back on their promise,

then the next time there is a hostage situation, it would become more difficult. hostage negotiator that works for the police, forges or goes back on their promise, then the next time there is a hostage situation, it would become more difficult. Like their credibility goes down. So it's very hard to just outright lie in a hostage negotiation. Because then the next one, you have no credibility. That is weird. Yeah, it's very complicated. But the authorities in this case, they would continue to make mistake after mistake, they would not be able to protect the tourist. An egregious amount of errors, if I'm being honest,

with you, was made on this case. Beginning from the moment that they arrive on the scene, first mistake, what would you do if you were the negotiators on this case? The very first thing that you would do. Like, when I arrive at the scene, and there's just people everywhere, journalists, reporters, get rid of those people. Yeah, when I arrive at the scene. And there's just people everywhere, journalists, reporters. Oh, like get rid of those people. Yeah, establish a perimeter. The bus is in a public, on a very busy citizen-packed public area. You need to make sure you create a perimeter around the bus, make sure that no authorities,

no citizens, no reporters without explicit permission are allowed to pass that border. That was not done. I mean, there was like kind of a perimeter put in place. explicit permission are allowed to pass that border. That was not done. I mean, there was like kind of a perimeter put in place, but if you really wanted, you could easily bypass it and walk straight up to the bus, which is later done by someone, a civilian that just walks straight up to the bus. Why?

Oh, we're gonna get there. Ultimately, there is no protected police line for the media to stay behind. Authorities failed to protect the perimeter. In the full 11 hours that the tense hostage situation was taking place, there was no protected line. And whatever the authorities were doing behind the scenes, wasn't even behind the scenes

because there were media everywhere. So imagine media with these giant cameras on their shoulders, and they're like, okay, I'm just gonna lean to the right, and that right there is the hostage negotiator game planning with to say next. And they would just air it for the whole nation and for the whole world to basically live stream it in real time. Look, I'm not a good negotiator.

I'm the ultimate pushover, but even I know the golden rule in negotiations is don't show your hands, don't show people your cards. The police are just showing it to the whole nation. Which he can have access to, right? Oh, that becomes a big thing. There's a cable connected TV on the tour of us. So he's just watching whatever they're doing and this becomes a big part of why he becomes trigger-happy. Another mistake, all traffic was blocked by the situation. So I mean, this is a busy road traffic jam.

The police made sure that no traffic was going to come through, but they did not put up signs or have people directing traffic, so traffic continued to get more and more congested. This traffic jam almost directly led to the hostage situation taking a really dark turn. Wow. Yeah, because someone was going to deliver an official letter of reinstatement for his job, but they were stuck in traffic. No.

Yes. We're going to get there. So for miles radiating out from the grandstand, it was bumper to bumper traffic. This would prove to be fatal. Hostage negotiations are quite like a dance that you need to perform. There's a lot of listening, a lot of relating. It's literally like a relationship. You're trying to do active listening. You're trying to resonate with them.

You're not trying to make them feel anxiety. That's the biggest thing that they said. The reason that hostage negotiators do not ask the hostage taker, how many guns they have, or what kind of weapons they have is because it strikes this anxiety where they're like, I need to use this. They're scoping me out. They're looking at me. They're planning ways to infiltrate. So instead they ask questions of like, how are you? How are you feeling? You know, and you just listen to them.

And what Mendoza wanted and all they had to do was an official legal document of reinstatement for his job. The negotiator says, yes, we're going to try and pull some strings to make it happen. I mean, this is a pretty tame negotiation compared to other things that we've seen, like even in movies, you see hostage takers demanding millions and used bills delivered in suitcases that have fake passports inside and a helicopter delivered on a helipad on a platter But he's like I just want a letter and I want my job back like I want to show up to work tomorrow in clock in Like you know where I'm gonna be tomorrow. I'm gonna be at work Yeah, that's pretty crazy. Yeah

And I'm emphasizing this point not to say that it wasn't traumatic for the people being held hostage But to show you how badly authorities messed it up Mrs. Lee is the first hostage to be released Just imagine the circus that is happening outside the bus. This is about an hour in pure chaos Everyone freezes the bus storage is opened and someone is walking off. Mrs. Lee had told Mendoza she had a stomach ache and needed fresh air. Considering her husband, Mr. Lee, was still on the bus, he let her out on the condition

that she would come back, which she had every intention of doing so for her husband. But media and police, they would not allow her to. When she walked a few steps out of range from the bus, she was swarmed. Two officers grabbed her, dragged her to the paramedics, the media swarmed her shoving cameras and mics in her face, nobody protected her from them, or from anyone for that matter. There wasn't even a single private place for Mrs. Lee to be taken. A place for the officers too, I don't know what would you place for Mrs. Lee to be taken a place for the officers to I don't know What would you do if Mrs. Lee came out of the bus?

Yeah, you have a shelter in privacy and communicate with her and listen to her communicate with her listen to her That would be one of the most fatal mistakes once Mrs. Lee was out of the bus No no officer asked her a single question about the situation inside the bus. No one would ask her how many guns did he have? How many exits there were? How many children were there? Were people tied up? Did he seem angry, agitated, unhinged? How calm is he? Why? Not a single thing. I don't know. Maybe it's the language barrier, but you could easily find a translator. I mean, there's so many people. There's gotta easily be one translator in there.

Wow. Get a translator on the phone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not a single person. They were just like, ah, we're gonna get the letter anyway. So it's fine. This would have been the ultimate upper hand in a hostage negotiation.

They never interviewed her. And she tried to go back in? Yes.. They never interviewed her. And she tried to go back in. Yes. Which they won't allow. No. Well, that must be really devastating. Yeah. Oh, it gets really sad later. So they never interviewed her. She's handed over to the paramedics and practically ignored by the hostage negotiators. Nearly two hours in, the doors open a second time. Outcomes a mother and three young children. They looked terrified but this is a good sign, right? I mean, he's slowly letting the woman in children off.

He's not harming anyone as horrifying as the experience is, everyone is still alive inside. All of that would change very, very soon. The first many negotiations started taking place around hour three, human life in exchange for food and water. The hostages needed to eat, they needed water, and so did Mendoza. He would release a few hostages here and there, exchanging for food and water on the condition that he would share with the passengers. Every so often you would see a curtain slide open and a concerned face of a passenger,

a hostage just appear, and these were all shot on camera by the media. All the people could do was just stare back wondering, you know, are we helping? What's going on? And the hostage is like the look on their face. It just looks like they're asking through the glass. Like what is taking so long? What's going on? This is like our three you said?

Yeah. They said they have to talk to the mayor and get all of these Approvals for the reinstatement they said that they don't have the power to do that Okay, that's a phone call. Yeah, yeah So by now there are 17 hostages left on the bus and still everybody is alive Negotiations where painfully slow and arduous they would exchange demands and then they would wait for the food to arrive Wait for the hostages to be let out and then they would wait for the food to arrive, wait for the hostages to be let out, and then wait for orders from the chain of command.

But it didn't have to be like that. The negotiators and authorities made the decision to negotiate with Mendoza. They were basically waiting for him to ask for something and then they would try to work on giving it. Instead of being proactive and being like, hey, okay, so this is what we're going to do. We're going to bring you this letter. It's going to take some time, but in order for us to bring the letter, you like let someone out. And then another percent, they were just like, Oh, you want food? What can we get a hostage? Oh, you need water

now? Can we get a hostage? It's almost like they were just waiting around for what he wanted next instead of doing the damn job It was very clear from the get go that Mendoza was in charge of this whole thing And it seemed like even he knew it at one point Mendoza literally stood in the doorway and waved to the authorities and media with a big smile on his face So our four out of 11 Mrs. Lee was disgusted and outraged by this situation. She felt so helpless. Her husband of 40 years is inside that bus. Her best friend, the only one that she could imagine spending the rest of her life with was inside that bus and you need to get him.

In a last ditch effort, she marches up to the police, taps him on the shoulder and says, you could not just sit around. My husband is an older man, he needs his medication, he's a diabetic, if he doesn't have it, you will have a medical emergency on your hands. I don't know how much of this was true. Negotiator Yurba ran to tell Mendoza exactly what was told to him.

He was like, oh my god, Mr. Lee is going to have a medical emergency. We need to get in the meds. Maybe if this had happened hour one, hour two, things would have played out differently. But hour four, Mendoza was starting to feel anxious. He felt like his demand for a letter of reinstatement were very clear and very simple. Why didn't they just bring it to him? Are they planning something? Are they stalling? Are they trying to set up snipers or something?

What is going on? He was becoming increasingly paranoid, along with the gas meter that's going down because they're pumping that AC non-stop. So he realizes that Mr. Lee, thanks to the information given by the negotiators, is a high-value hostage. The authorities want him out. So he leverages Mr. Lee and says, I will give you Mr. Lee if you fill the bus up with gas. We need AC for the hostages. To give you an example, if the gas ran out the AC would turn off, it would not be good, but it would potentially push them out of the bus,

including Mendoza himself. Authorities gave the deal a go ahead. Around 2pm, the doors of the bus opened, and Mrs. Lee watched from the crowd, and she held her breath because she could see her husband right there, standing at the steps of the bus, holding his little bag from their trip. He's scanning the crowd, looking for Mrs. Lee, and she wished she could scream like, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here. He's scanning the crowd looking for Mrs. Lee and she wish she could scream like I'm here, I'm here, I'm here. And he was so close, but right as he's about to step down, Mendoza appears and he feels his hand on his shoulder, like stopping him. Mrs. Lee held her breath and most of the crowd went silent. Was he gonna let him off? Was this about to take a turn for the worst? Was this about to be a public execution?

You could see the terror on most people's faces. Mendoza reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and called the negotiator and said, I'm gonna let him go if you can guarantee that I will be reinstated. You're about to try to calm him down over the phone. Of course, the Mendoza's vice mayor is already on route to the address, the whole thing, you know,

you know how it is, all the legal loops and holes and procedures is very archaic, you get it, but we're gonna have the letter to you, don't worry. After what felt like an eternity, Mr. Lee felt the weight of Mendoza's hand lift from his shoulder, which I imagine that felt like a thousand pounds, and he slowly walked off the bus.

He did not look back. I imagine for the fierce few steps, there is this fear with you that you're going to be shot down in front of everyone, in front of your wife. You don't know if you're truly free yet. You don't want to run, because it might cause a disturbance. You tried your best to keep calm, keep cool. Mr. Lee was rushed to the paramedics where he expected to see Mrs. Lee waiting for him, but instead, there was this younger woman there.

And she immediately approaches him, and he has no idea who this woman is. Honestly, he doesn't care, he just wants his wife. And the woman just kept apologizing and apologizing about what he had gone through, and it was kind of a strange experience. Neither of them could really communicate with one another, but it was very clear, she was very sorry. And he soon found out why. She said, I'm Mendoza's daughter. Mr. Lee gave her his blessing. He said, it's okay, it's all going to be

over anyway once that letter comes. He was rushed to the paramedics and it was over for the Lee's, but for the others, we have just reached the halfway point. Side note, this is very sad, but when the Lee's were reunited, they were both sobbing and Mrs. Lee could not tell him fast enough that she would never leave him, she did not abandon him, she was trying to get back to the bus, but the police wouldn't let her, the media wouldn't let her, she would never, in a million years, abandon him on the bus alone just so that she could be safe, and he just held her and said, I know, I know. Unfortunately, authorities would ignore Mr. Lee just like they had Mrs. Lee and all

the other hostages that were released. Another missed opportunity for authorities to gather critical information on the situation inside. Not a single one of them was asked a single question. The incompetence of the negotiators and officers would only get worse from here. The crowd starts going crazy once again and pointing at the bus. The authorities looked over and who is that? Is that who authorized this?

Is that one of us? Who is that armed man walking up to the bus? There's just a dude walking up to the bus. The civilian was now just a few feet away from the bus when authorities were able to stop him. One of the negotiators, Salvador, ran up, booked at him, grabbed his firearm. You're not allowed here. You don't have clearance. You need to ask clearance from the crisis committee to talk to Mendoza or anyone on that bus. Is it a cop or another officer went up to detain the civilian who quickly screamed, I'm Mendoza's brother, I'm Mendoza's brother.

So he is a cop. He's not on duty right now, he's not working this, he is armed because he has a weapon and he's Mendoza's brother. Oh my goodness. Authorities drag him back to the control center, which again is just an area in the crowd where the cops are congregating. So the media is still there in this entire situation where a citizen was allowed to walk into an active hostage negotiation with scene on live television, showing the nation and really the world that no authorities had control over this situation right now. Media can even see what the police are doing to this villain now that he was back in the crowd with the cops. They're broadcasting that.

This is where the domino effect of policing competence starts to alter the course of events had the police spoken to any of the hostages that were freed from the bus any single one of them they would have known that Mendoza was able to witness everything from inside the bus because the bus had cable TV the authorities did not know that so Mendoza saw on TV as his brother was being taken aggressively by authorities dragged back to the command center and arrested. In addition, around this same time, he was like handcuffed. Yeah. Pretty aggressively too.

In addition to that, Mendoza. Wait, what didn't you, I'm so sorry. What didn't you want to get the brothers to assist in this situation or the daughter? So later they do get the brother to help deliver a letter, but it was too late. In addition to that, Mendoza was given the letter by negotiators, and it was basically like,

hey, we're going to review your reinstatement. And that is not the same as you are reinstated. So Mendoza screamed at the negotiators, this is not what I want. What you delivered is just a letter to pacify me This isn't right. I read the letter and it's no use for me This made Mendoza Trigger happy

Sometime between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Mendoza moved the tour guide from the back of the bus to the very front He handcuffed the tour guide to the front door and attempt to scare the government It was very clear what the message was. This will be a public execution unless you comply with my demands. The tourists were terrified. I think something in the air had shifted. On the bus it was almost tangible. They heard Mendoza scream five minutes over the phone. And then he went to counting the number of heads on the bus. And those were probably the longest five minutes of their lives. For five minutes, nobody moved, nobody even dared breathing too

loud. And after five minutes, nothing happened. Mendoza just kept making more and more calls. And with every call, the hostages felt his anger rising. I mean, this is the exact opposite of what negotiators are supposed to be doing. Whatever they're doing, it's not working. With every call, he's getting angrier. The whole point of negotiation isn't even to win, but it's that with every single call, you de-escalate the situation. The TV was playing his brother's arrest, and after yet another anger-inducing phone call,

Mendoza hung up and bang! The whole bus shook. Some people screamed, other people froze with shock. He had just shot and killed the tour guide. Then he walked from the front to the back of the bus, shooting the passengers one by one. Mr. Liang, he was there with his whole family, wife, children. He and another man rushed forward to stop Mendoza, but both of them fell to the floor. They were shot. A survivor said after Mendoza killed those two men, the entire bus was deadly silent.

Nobody wanted to move. They hoped that he would stop. There was not a single sound for several minutes other than gunshots. The survivors ducked under their seats and got on the floor and, um, Amy Lang, she was hiding, and she was very close to her dead husband who had just been shot, trying to protect everyone. She wanted desperately to check on her husband to help him in some way. Amy was there with her husband and her three children, and it said that one of her kids had moved to check on her brother who had been shot, and she too was shot and killed. The survivor said, looking at all the bodies in front of them,

all you could do was boot his chance, because that's all you know how to do. That was her custom, she said, whenever someone passed, she would recite the chants so that they would be at peace. But when she would even stop these chants for even a moment, the panic would start setting in, like, were they actually dead? There's no way, like, how long have we been hiding? Should I try and get up? Should I try and fight? There's got to be a way. She kept envisioning their poor souls just wandering around the bus trying to get out.

With the heat, should I everyone? So he's shooting at everyone and there is blood, it's like a blood bath. So people are dropping to the ground and in the chaos of the gunfire and the screams and everything that's going on, some people were not shot or they were shot but not fatally, so they're pretending to be dead.

They're soaked in maybe even their blood or other people's blood and hoping that he doesn't realize that they're alive. Almost as a way to cope, one survivor said she started repeating a prayer very, very slowly and she tried to focus her attention on the things in life that she still needed to do. She needed to see her family and friends again, and she said that it was heartbreaking looking over at her mom who was also hiding alongside her. They were both pretending to be dead to not attract attention from Mendoza. Another survivor and Mr. Chan said,

I saw both of my hands at holes. So he had blocked the bullet with his hands, and they were just like obliterated. And he said that he would press his hands together as he laid sideways on the seat pretending to be dead. And I guess his hands were very close to his neck, so when Mendoza walked by it looked like he was bleeding from his neck. He said it was so quiet, so quiet.

I was the last one he shot, because he could see blood gushing out of me. He thought I was dead. But he would fire second rounds at people that he felt like were alive. If someone moved, I would seem to go over and fire another shot. Remember the survivor from the start of the story who was to wear a mask every day? She said when she was shot in the jaw, she just had to lay there. Motionless, like, lived through that pain and agony. She said all she could do to get through that pain was to think about her two-year-old son. She said, after I was

shot, I immediately thought about him. He was only two at the time and I just kept telling myself, I can't die because if I die, my son will be an orphan. I told myself again and again, don't give up, don't give up your son needs you. Can you imagine how hard it is to be laying there next to your loved ones? Because most of these people came with their loved ones. They did not come alone. Not knowing if their loved one is dead, dying, or if there's something that you can do to help them.

Not knowing if they're just pretending to be dead, just like you are. And having to stay so utterly still, otherwise, you would come back and shoot you. Like, the fear, the trauma, your heart is beating out of your chest, but you can't let him see that. You have to force yourself to calm your breathing. The moms are praying that their children are just pretending to be dead, but even if then, what if they move, what if they sneeze?

What if they don't know that they should be pretending to be dead? They're literal children. What if Mendoza comes up to them and shoots them again for no reason? I mean, as a mom, do you get up and scream only to die too, or do you try and hold it and try and survive and hope that your kids are also surviving? Like I cannot even begin to imagine what everyone on that floor of that bus was thinking in those very moments. And I would just imagine that maybe they're all focusing all their attention on not moving, not making any noise.

Maybe it's like a distraction. It was about to get nearly impossible to lay their motionless. They heard the back of the window break, and a canister of tear gas was thrown into the bus. Every single survivor chokes back tears as they strained every single muscle in their body to not sneeze or cough. They watched as they loved one struggle to breathe and their faces would go red and no one dared cough.

And all I can say is, I feel like this could have been prevented. What if comparing car insurance rates was as easy as putting on your favorite podcast? With Progressive, it is. Just visit the Progressive website to quote with all the coverage as you want. You'll see Progressive's direct rate, then their tool will provide options from other companies so you can compare. All you need to do is choose the rate and coverage you like. Quote today at Progressive.com to join the over 29 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive casualty insurance

company and affiliates comparison rates not available in all states or situations prices vary based on how you buy. Why would you break into these apartments? For money, for drugs, whatever was in there. Why aren't you afraid of getting caught at doing this? No, who's gonna catch us? What a police. It was the height of the crack era and instead of locking up drug dealers, some New York City cops had become them.

I would suit up in my uniform and we're going to want some drug dealers and I know how to do it really well. This is the inside story of the biggest police corruption scandal in NYPD history and the investigation that uncovered it all. Did you consider yourself a rat? 100%. I saved my soul just like everybody else does. Listen to and follow the set, an Autosy Originals documentary podcast series, available now in the Autosy app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your shows. I'm not a big guy man, but I love being that dirty mother f***er. Before Mendoza fired the first shot, a few things could have changed the course of history.

One, the SAF's special action forces and elite tactical force of the Philippines had undergone training by the American FBI, they were deployed to the scene as a direct order from the president of the Philippines. They arrive on the scene, assess the situation, assumed position ready to go in. They're ready. All they need is to go ahead from the president and they would be on the move. I'm not sure if their involvement could have changed things for better or worse could have saved lives, but they were there, ready to be used, and they were highly skilled,

highly trained, and incredibly strategic. But they never got a signal from the president. So they're just like waiting on the sidelines. And then it starts to rain, rain starts coming down hard on everything and everyone. Pure chaos and suit, authorities, media, everything was hot, humid, wet, sticky, you couldn't see much. The sun is setting, it's getting dark, only adding to the tension of things. The SAF knows they have to move in and move in quickly, but they're literally unallowed to do so without signal from the president. What's going on? The president is like doing a whole bunch of other shit, okay? He's not even responding to Hong Kong's like officials calling him.

Hong Kong officials are like, hey, those are our people. What's going on? And he's not picking up. This would cause huge diplomatic disasters later after the incident. So they just kind of stood there wasting time. Meanwhile, Yerba, the main negotiator, was trying to get in contact with the mayor and the police general to get authorization on a new letter. He knew that they needed to act quickly. He's getting trigger happy. This is before he even fired a single shot. Urba needed a better letter, but the two, the mayor and the police general, they could not reach an agreement

on whether or not they were gonna comply with the demands. I think they were having conversations such as if we comply with these demands, then that sets a tone for further hostage negotiations. And are we really gonna let this man be a cop after all of this? But if we arrest him, then it looks like, you know, in hostage negotiations, we're just big fat liars. I imagine those are the common people.

Well, you can't figure that out in four hours. No, so what do they do? The mayor suggests, and this is giving Ite1 flashbacks, that they go to a nearby restaurant to have dinner and talk it out. You were absolutely hearing this correctly. They went to a dinner at a local restaurant. I don't even know how to explain how vile, disgusting and evil this is. This literally reminds me of itaewans so badly. There is an escalating hostage situation. People are dying and they are eating dinner. I I cannot even fathom the process of these twisted men. They're like we can. They're like loss of words. Yeah, like we have the total power to change and alter the course of

things, but let's go eat dinner. Blood would soon be on their hands. So just to give you an overview, Mendoza is becoming enhinged because his brother is arrested on TV and he can see it. He receives a letter that he probably correctly believes to be a stalling tactic from the police. Meanwhile, nobody outside can seem to get their shit together, and another blow is delivered to Mendoza.

He sees on TV that the police are setting up snipers. He sees it on TV. Literally, the media is putting it out there, and he sees it. The authorities have no idea there is cable inside of the bus because none of them talked to a single former hostage that was let out. This is absolutely insane. Yeah, so the situation is escalating and becoming more dangerous by the second, Mendoza's mental state is clearly deteriorating, evidence by the phone calls he's making,

so it's not like he's deteriorating inside and shutting everyone out. He's constantly making phone calls everyone knows he's becoming unhinged. Like we have the worst kind of hostage taker in our hands, the scariest kind which is the unpredictable kind. What's insane is that there is a letter on route to the hostage site, a letter that would confirm Mendoza's full reinstatement into the police service. I believe this was given out by a different government official, and this letter would not get there in time as it was stuck in traffic due to the fact that the police failed to set up traffic control near the site. The letter would arrive at 7.30 pm, but it was too late. Shots had already been fired. The negotiators were trying to get through the

windows on the phone to tell them to stop, to tell them that there was a letter on the way, but they got a busy signal. So there's a few theories. Theory A, reporters found the number, and they were calling nonstop to get live interviews, which did happen. I'm just not sure if that's the one that led to the physics signal in this crucial moment, but they did call.

Yeah, a lot of reporters were under fire after this because they were literally calling the only line of communication between Mendoza and the hostage officials, negotiators, to get a live interview. Anyway. How are they allowed to do this, though? Because the police are not controlling anything. And this kind of reminds me of a lot of cases of Utah's runs out of Korea when there is,

people don't want to take accountability. So the officer is just kind of keep bouncing it back and no one is controlling anything They're just like, oh, that's them, that's handling it. Oh, that's them, that's handling it. Like it's giving this hair or a fairy No one wants to be the one to put their foot down and be like, okay, you do this you do that. I'm gonna secure the area No one is allowed to call because we're gonna freaking arrest them Or the other theories that Mendoza knew that this was the end, so he was calling his loved ones to say goodbye. There was another secondary letter coming from the officials

from the restaurant, so the mayor and the chief commander, they're coming from the restaurant with the letter, but they would also be late, and they blamed it on traffic. Had they not been eating dinner, had the police directed traffic, and had the negotiators started with this tactic

from the very beginning, all of the lies on the tour bus, likely could have been saved. How do you blame on traffic when this went on for 11 hours? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. What? Yeah. Like you had 11 hours to get that letter there.

Get a helicopter. You work the government. Get a helicopter, print 1000 copies of it, and just shower it down if you need to. Like, what are you doing? You got nowhere to land? Okay, shower down the paper. But the games were over.

The shots were fired, and all the public could do was watch as the bus shook with each shot, and listen to either the screams or the utter silence that was almost suffocating. People literally watched the massacre of the hostages right before their eyes. It was almost confirmed to everyone that they were all dead and nothing happened.

No one did anything to stop it. At 7.30 p.m., the bus driver, who was not shot for whatever reason, was able to free himself and broke free from the window. For the past few hours, he had been using a pair of nail clippers to slowly pick the lock of his handcuffs. Now, side note, people would later suspect that he was working with Mendoza, but I don't know what motive he would have, maybe that Mendoza paid him to tell him where the tour

schedule was and to help hijack, but other than that, I don't know. He was suspected to be in on it because people couldn't believe that he could pick the handcuff lock with nail clippers and adding to the suspicions, he and his family packed up and moved away without notice after this. But I don't know how like really suspicious that is. I would imagine with all the media attention and trauma, I would like to get the hell out of there too. So everyone watched and surprised and whore as the bus driver ran out the broken window

and kept screaming they're all dead, they're all dead, they're all dead. What about the hijacker? He's alive. He's alone in the bus with dead hostages, as well as hostages pretending to be dead. They how did the driver get out in front of him? Exactly. So he was like in the back I guess shooting people and he managed to get out the front through a window. So finally, the mayor and police commander arrive at the scene and they blame their tardiness on traffic.

Yes, they arrive and the police commander is given explicit instructions from allegedly the president to send the essay fn to get Mendoza. But instead, what does he do? He sends in the Manila police SWAT team. Look, I'm sure the SWAT team is great, but there's levels to these forces, and it's very clear to everyone, it is not a competition. Some people just receive more heavy intensive training, and the essay f was clearly fit for this job.

They were more capable. It's like, do I send in the detective, or the fucking CIA and FBI agents? If the president told me to send in the CIA and FBI, I'm going to send in the CIA and the FBI and not the local sheriff, okay? So why did he do that? Because the SWAT teams are under his command. He wanted control of the situation.

It was an ego power play. Maybe in his head he was like like the SWAT team is better. The SAF doesn't know what they're doing. I don't know. Okay. It's bizarre. No one understands. Filipinos everywhere are like, why would he do that? He was let go from his job because it's so bizarre that he would do that. But he was just a disgusting display of prior to ego and power play. So 737 SWAT teams move in and this is seen by all the media, so just think about that. SWAT teams move in, and they try smashing the windows of the bus. They could not break the windows, they were too thick.

This is very embarrassing. The SWAT teams look a bit confused. They try to open the front door, but Mendoza opens fire on them, and they see the handcuffed dead body of the tour guide and decide this is not a viable route of entry. So what do they do? They go away from the bus, they create some distance from the bus and they start regrouping and thinking about how to enter. And this is insane. As they're talking, the media basically taps them on the shoulder and says, hey, you know there's an emergency exit in the back, right? Which side note, I feel like everyone knows that.

Police officer, SWAT team or not, there's always some sort of emergency exit in the back of any public or business passenger transport. The SWAT team heads over to the back, manages to crack the window open, but Mendoza opens fire at them, and you can see some of the SWAT members like fall off the bus in shock,

in what a lot of netizens call a quote, pathetic display. As this unfolded, ground commander-general who made the decision to send in the SWAT team, he was immediately sacked. So meanwhile, all the SAF do is wait till the next highest in command, give them the order to head in. And all they could do was watch the SWAT team fail over and over again. By 8 p.m., they were ordered to join the SWAT team in attempting to penetrate the bus. So from here, they would finally take control over the operation.

The SAF decided, let's send them some tear gas. The window in the back is already broken. We just need to pull the pin, throw it in, here's what we're trying to do. The back of the bus, it's all boarded up by the blinds of the curtains. We need to push Mendoza to the front of the bus where we have clear view and the snipers can get him. So throw in the tear gas and then we'll infiltrate. So that's what they do.

They send the tear gas in and all their survivors are trying their best not to cough, but thankfully Mendoza is too concerned about his own life. So he instinctively runs towards the front of the bus and snipers at 8.41pm. They broke the glass and a total of 17 gunshot wounds were fired into Mendoza's body. He would stumble and fall against the cracked glass door. This is a crime scene photo that I think everyone should be aware of that is out there. His torso is sticking out of the broken glass of the door halfway, so he's like halfway

out of the bus. His arms are hanging completely limp, and there was a fatal shot by the sniper that had blown like half of his skull. It was still somewhat attached and it was just hanging from the rest of his head. It's very graphic. And because police had no control over the area, basically everyone saw it and took pictures.

Then the silence was broken by screams. That's how everyone knew there were survivors. At this point, with the bus driver screaming, everyone was dead, the tear gas, the shots fired inside the bus. Everyone assumed that there was no survivors, but now that they knew it was a media circus, everyone just ran to the bus.

Everyone, I mean, it was as if someone was giving out free immortality pills from this bus. Paramedics ran to try and save the survivors. Authorities ran, media ran, shoving cameras into survivor's faces as they're being hauled off the bus. The reporters and journalists are literally screaming interview questions at survivors who have just been through one of the most traumatic things any human can go through, and not only that, even after the survivors were brought out, the bus was never secured.

Anyone could basically walk straight into the bus if they wanted. The whole area was in complete disarray. I mean, it's not even surprising at this point, but the media was never controlled in this case. They were just sharks in the water. Reporters journalists, they did not care. They just wanted the best story. One journalist even went above and beyond and he somehow kept

calling the bus hijacker Mendoza and they were just like we want exclusive interviews. So after 11 hours everyone thought the incident was finally over but it was not. It was the beginning of just pure trauma, healing, grief and also an absolute diplomatic disaster. Hong Kong had been repeatedly trying to get in contact with the president of the Philippines during the whole situation, and multiple times he was unreachable. And now that Mendoza was dead, the Chinese embassy requested information on where the victims bodies were being taken, as well as the survivors.

Through this, they find out that some of the victims had actually been turned away from the hospital. The hospital was like, oh, you're a survivor of the victims had actually been turned away from the hospital. The hospital was like, oh, you're a survivor of the hostage situation? Sorry, we're like jam packed right now, so you gotta go somewhere else. Why? There was no coordination with the authorities and the medical facilities. So imagine you just walk into urgent care, and they're like, sorry, we can't.

But you're like, the cops just walked me in here, because I was literally held hostage, and I have been shot in the jaw. They're like, yeah, well, you gotta find a new hospital. walked me in here because I was literally held hostage and I have been shot in the jaw. They're like, yeah, you gotta find a new hospital. Add to that, only Chinese embassy officials ever visited the survivors and the victims in the hospital. The survivors even wondered out loud to the media, wouldn't the Filipino government want to interview us for the case reports?

Wouldn't police want to talk to us? Get all the details of what happened inside the bus for the past 11 hours? They were never questioned. Separate investigations were done both by the Philippine and Chinese governments following the hijacking. Each separately concluded that one of the primary issues that felt were the negotiations falling apart earlier during the day.

This included the police's forced unnecessary harassment towards Mendoza's brother and the lack of interviewing release hostages. Survivors stated, yeah, Mendoza opened fire and when he did he was an evil cold-blooded man. But when he boarded that bus, we all saw him as a hopeful man. So we don't know why this happened. This did not have to get to that point. Mrs. Lee even said, I felt that when he boarded the bus, he was a kindhearted man, and I felt that there was a high, high chance of peaceful surrendering once his demand was met. Another key failure was the aftermath. There was no plan for what to do after the assault. The crime scene was not preserved. It was really, really bad.

And this brought up the case of Christian, and side note, I don't want this to make it seem like the... I mean, you guys already know, okay? The Filipino citizens have nothing to do with this. Once the last time the US government did something and you're like, oh my god, American suck. Like, we don't want to be so closely attached to our government. We don't have control over 99% of the stuff the government does. Probably 99.99%.

Filipino citizens were just as angry as the citizens of Hong Kong, as the families of the victims, or maybe not as angry, but they were infuriated, they wanted answers. Because at the end of the day, how the Filipino government reacts and responds to these tragedies,

it's going to impact Filipino citizens the most. It's going to impact Filipino lives the most in the long run. So they were upset, they were upset for the victims, they wanted answers. Now the netizens were split though on whether or not Christian was lying. Now if Christian had lied in the original case and Mendoza had been fired from his, and there was other corruption going on, that would kind of make it seem like the whole system was corrupt, and Mendoza was somewhat of a victim of the system as well. Other people stated that he was not a victim. Like he probably did that, if not similar things, and if they went digging, they uncovered

that in 1996 1996 Mendoza had been accused of participating in the gang of a woman near Resol Park. This is nearby where the hostages were taken. The case was dismissed because the prosecution's witness did not appear in court. Netizens speculate that is way too similar. Maybe the cops are threatening the witnesses, the victims, to not appear in court. Some people believe that he learned very early on that charges go away when the victim does not appear in court. Others believe that maybe it was just people crying wolf

and that he was innocent. But ultimately, there was about a year and a half between when he was fired and when he started the hostage situation. A year and a half is a really long time to stop planning an attack. It's a lot of time for you to think back and say, maybe I shouldn't do this. And I think the fact that he continued to do it, and yes, we can have sympathy for that feeling. I think all of us have felt that injustice of, we've been accused of doing something that we didn't do and we are facing the consequences of it. But to put people's lives in danger, that's not something normal people do.

That's not something good people do. The total death toll was nine deaths, including the death of Mendoza himself. And a survivor stated, I've reviewed the incident in my mind a million times over, and I'm just so angry. I just so much regret. I just kept thinking, why didn't we take action to save ourselves? Why did we hand our fates to an incompetent government during the long waiting process

and just quietly wait for help that never came? Also another survivor said, if there is anyone in Hong Kong that feels anger towards the Filipino citizens, why? Feel injustice for the victims. We can want a proper and fair investigation, if there is anyone in Hong Kong that feels anger towards the Filipino citizens. Why? Feel injustice for the victims. We can want a proper and fair investigation, but support the Philippines and the people of the Philippines

support them as they build a more trustworthy government. The Chinese government expressed anger and disproval in the investigation. They sent a team to the Philippines to handle the situation. They also refused delegation visits from the VP of the Philippines. Hong Kong restricted all visa-free visits from Filipino residents to the Hong Kong for a brief period of time. I think it went like both ways.

And all of this was made worse when it was discovered that Mendoza's family had covered his coffin with the Filipino flag during his burial. And a lot of netizens, including Filipino citizens, were very upset about that. The Hong Kong government issued a travel alert to the Philippines, advised against travel, and yeah, Hong Kong officials also offered condolences

in aid to the survivors and their families and organized a memorial ceremony for the victims. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange held a minute silence and lowered flags to half-mast to mourn the victims. A visit by Manila officials later to Hong Kong helped ease the tensions a little bit and the sanctions were lifted but it was just a lot. It was an international disaster. The Canadian Foreign Minister expressed condolences. Five of the victims were Canadian nationals. The British government confirmed that two elderly hostages,

Mr. and Mrs. Lee, were in fact British citizens. And meanwhile, I don't think that there were any US nationals or citizens, but the US Embassy in Manila publicly condemned the hostage taker for his actions regardless of the reasoning. In August of 2011, two survivors and a victim's brother met with the Filipino government to discuss compensation. In 2014, an agreement was reached under an undisclosed amount. Another survivor said,

yeah, money is fine, but for me, the only thing I want, this is Mrs. Yik. She said, the only thing I want is for my son to be able to see my face without a mask. And I just want to live without fear. Remember Mr. Liang, the one that tried to stop the gunman and was murdered? Two of his daughters were murdered.

There were five family members on the bus. So the two parents and the three kids. Two of the three kids were murdered. The dad was murdered. The only survivors were the mom and the 18 year old son Jason was in a coma, but he woke up. So I guess to end the episode on some hopeful news, Jason was flown back to Hong Kong regained consciousness. And the first words that he spoke was the doctor pointed at his mom and said, who is this? Who is this? And he said, that's mommy.

He is able to read English in Chinese, but the neurosurgeon said that the journey to recovery is going to be very long, and it's not going to be a small challenge. But it's something. And his mother said, the feeling of relief I've experienced, it cannot be described with words. I just can only be grateful. And that is the story of the Manila bus hostage situation. It reminds me so much as I was researching, it just reminds me so much of this hewar fairy, the Italian incident, where I cannot even wrap my head around some of these government officials.

And the fact that they genuinely think in today's day and age they can do the most heinous things and think that no one is going to be like why'd you do that? You literally caused people to die. Why'd you do that? Why did you go eat dinner? But like no one's going to ask me that. What are your thoughts? And like I said, government and its people are two different entities. All right. Please let me know in the comments. Stay safe, and I will see you guys on Sunday for the mini-stote. Bye!