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

26:02And 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, no, I trust the due process.

26:37I'm just going to file an appeal. They're going to listen to what I have to say. And it's going to make sense. And everything will be OK. 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 meth. 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.

27:14So 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. My brother did the same thing. Please just listen 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.

27:48He 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 file the 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, to some, an innocent man being framed by a corrupt system that doesn't advocate for their own.

28:30To 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.

29:09You know? Now, 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 want to race up behind him, kick him out. Many of them even rehearse the move in their mind. They're like, okay, I'm going to have to kick him really hard, but I can't lose my balance. And then, but the problem is, their concern was, and they're 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.

29:44What 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 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.

30:20But 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 like directly outside. Imagine there's like an invisible wall because no one wants to get that close because there's a gunman on board.

30:55But 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's a hostage situation, it would become more difficult.

31:38Like 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?

32:11And there's just people everywhere, journalist, 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 past 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.

32:45Why? Oh, we're going to 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 going to lean to the right. And that right there is the hostage negotiator game planning what to say next. And they would just air it for the whole nation and for the whole world to basically live stream mid in real time.

33:25Look, 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 bus. 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.

34:23No. 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.

35:00They'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 in used bills delivered in suitcases that have fake passports inside and a helicopter delivered on a helipad on a platter.

35:39But he's like, I just want a letter and I want my job back. Like, I want to show up to work tomorrow and clock in. Like, you know where I'm going to be tomorrow. I'm going to 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 door just opened and someone is walking off. Mrs. Lee had told Mendoza she had a stomachache and needed fresh air.

36:21Considering 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 to, I don't know, what would you do if Mrs.

36:56Lee came out of the bus? Yeah, you have a shelter and 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 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.

37:34There's got to easily be one translator in there. Wow. Get a translator on the phone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not a single person. They were just like, we're going to 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. Which they won't allow. No. Wow, 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.

38:12Out comes a mother and three young children. They look terrified, but this is a good sign, right? I mean, he's slowly letting the women and 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 mini-negotiation 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.

38:48Every 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 hostages, 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 hour 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.

39:20Yeah. Yeah. So by now, there are 17 hostages left on the bus and still everybody is alive. Negotiations were 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 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.

39:55We'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 person, they were just like, oh, you want food? Well, 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.

40:25So hour four out of 11, Mrs. Lee was disgusted and outraged by the 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 cannot 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 Yerba ran to tell Mendoza exactly what was told to him.

41:01He 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 nonstop.

41:30So 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 2 p.m., 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.

42:08He's scanning the crowd, looking for Mrs. Lee, and she wished 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 going to let him off? Was this about to take a turn for the worse? 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 going to let him go if you can guarantee that I will be reinstated.

42:48Yerba tried to calm him down over the phone. Of course, the Manila's vice mayor is already en 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 going to 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 first 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.

43:20You 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.

43:58Lee gave her his blessing he said it's okay it's all gonna be over anyway once that letter comes he was rushed to the paramedics and it was over for the Lees but for the others we have just reached the halfway point side note this is very sad but when the Lees 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.

44:30I 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.

45:08The 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 it to 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.

45:48So the media is still there in this entire situation where a citizen was allowed to walk into an active hostage negotiation was seen 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 the civilian now that he was back in the crowd with the cops. They're broadcasting that. This is where the domino effect of police incompetence 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.

46:24The 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, wouldn't you... I'm so sorry. Right. Wouldn'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.

47:05And 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 in an 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.

47:45It 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 as 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.

48:24The 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 stopped 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.

49:11There was not a single sound for several minutes other than gunshots. The survivors ducked under their seats and got on the floor and Amy Liang, 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's 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 Buddhist chants 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 wait did he shoot at 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.

50:28Some 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.

51:01Another survivor, Mr. Chan, said, I saw both of my hands had 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 see him go over and fire another shot.

51:41Remember the survivor from the start of the story who has to wear a mask every day? She said when she was shot in the jaw, she just had to lay there. motionless, like live 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?

52:14Because 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 he 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, even if then, what if they move?

52:43What 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 there motionless.

53:18They heard the back of the window break, and a canister of tear gas was thrown into the bus. Oh my goodness. Every single survivor chokes back tears as they strained every single muscle in their body to not sneeze or cough. They watched as their loved ones struggled to breathe, and their faces would go red, and no one dared to cough. and all I can say is I feel like this could have been prevented

53:48before Mendoza fired the first shot a few things could have changed the course of history one, the SAF, Special Action Forces an 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 the 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 for worse, could have saved lives, but they were there ready to be used and they were highly skilled, highly trained and incredibly strategic.

54:24But 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 ensued. Authorities, media, everything was hot, humid, wet, sticky. You couldn't see much. The sun is setting. It's getting dark, only adding to like 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. OK, he's not even responding to Hong Kong's like officials calling him.

54:59Hong 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. Yerba 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 going to comply with the demands.

55:31I 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 going to 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 conversations. Well, you can't figure that out in four hours? No. So what do they do? The mayor suggests, and this is giving Itaewon flashbacks, that they go to a nearby restaurant to have dinner and talk it out. You are 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 Itaewon so badly there is an escalating hostage situation people are dying and they are eating dinner I cannot even fathom the process of these twisted men they're like we can't loss of words 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 unhinged because his brother is arrested on TV and he can see it.

56:36He 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, evidenced by the phone calls he's making, so it's not like he's deteriorating inside and shutting everyone out.

57:16He'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 en 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 p.m., but it was too late.

57:50Shots had already been fired. The negotiators were trying to get through to Mendoza on the phone to tell him to stop, to tell him 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 busy 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.

58:27Anyway. 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 that we talk about in South Korea when there is people don't want to take accountability. So the officers 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 hae war 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 going to secure the area. no one is allowed to call because we're going to freaking arrest them.

59:00Or the other theory is 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 a 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?

59:31Yeah, that's what I'm saying. What? Yeah. Like you had 11 hours to get that letter there. Get a helicopter. You are the government. Get a helicopter, print a thousand 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.

1:00:16And 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 um 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 in surprise and horror 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.

1:01:18Then 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 SAFN 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.

1:01:53Some people just receive more heavy intensive training and the SAF 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. 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, 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?

1:02:34He was let go from his job because it's so bizarre that he would do that. But it was just a disgusting display of pride, 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?

1:03:05They 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 fall off the bus in shock in what a lot of netizens call a, quote, pathetic display.

1:03:42As 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 him 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.

1:04:13The back of the bus, it's all boarded up by the blinds and 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 the 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.

1:04:49This 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.

1:05:26The 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 survivors' 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.

1:06:02Anyone 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.

1:06:43Hong 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 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.

1:07:13So 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, but 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.

1:07:45Separate investigations were done both by the Philippine and Chinese governments following the hijacking. Each separately concluded that one of the primary issues at fault 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 released 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 kind-hearted 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.

1:08:50When's the last time the US government did something and you're like, oh my God, Americans 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 in Hong Kong as the families of the victims. Well, maybe not as angry, but they were infuriated. They wanted answers because at the end of the day, how the Filipino government reacts in response 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.

1:09:28So 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 job 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, Mendoza had been accused of participating in the gang of a woman near Rizal Park.

1:10:07This 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.

1:11:12The 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 have 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, but support the Philippines and the people of the Philippines support them as they build a more trustworthy government.

1:11:54The Chinese government expressed anger and disapproval 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.

1:12:34Hong 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's 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.

1:13:10And meanwhile, I don't think that there were any U.S. nationals or citizens, but the U.S. 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. Yeek 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 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 um 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.

1:14:25He is able to read English and 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, just reminds me so much of this Heor Ferry, the Taiwan 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 did you do that you literally caused people to die why did you do that why did you go eat dinner they're like no one's gonna ask me that what are your thoughts and like I said government and its people are two different entities please let me know in the comments, stay safe, and I will see you guys on Sunday for the mini-sode.

1:15:29Bye!