Hong Kong residents Tuesday criticized as incomplete a scathing report from the Philippine government detailing the mishandling of a bus hijacking in which eight tourists from the southern Chinese territory died. The report – which said leaders communicated poorly with the hostage-taker, a fired policeman, and called police inadequately trained – came as President Benigno Aquino III tried to repair ties with China, where the attack sparked outrage. The report, released Monday, also recommended charges, both criminal and administrative, be brought against Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, recently retired police chief Jesus Versoza, his negotiator Manila police chief Rodolfo Magtibay, who left for a nearby restaurant before the gunman fired at the hostages, and several others. Aquino said he would decide whether to approve filing of charges after taking advice from government lawyers. The report accused Magtibay of “gross insubordination” for defying presidential orders to use an elite commando unit instead of a local SWAT team that struggled to storm the bus after shots were heard. Lim's approach of trying to wait out the situation was “made with utter disregard of any experience and training in hostage-taking incidents,” the report said. Lim Tuesday admitted failure in handling the Aug. 23 hostage crisis but faulted the committee that conducted the investigation for coming up with a report that is “too sweeping, false and lacked basis.” “We failed,” an emotional Lim told a press conference at the Manila City Hall. However, he said he and Moreno should not be blamed for the botched police rescue operation. Lim appealed to the authorities to spare Moreno from the charges. “Please spare the vice mayor. He is blameless. I am ready to face charges. I can't do anything about it. Sometimes that's how the ball bounces.” Lim said the blame should be placed squarely on the Manila Police leadership, particularly on Magtibay. “We had no direct role in the hostage negotiation. That was the responsibility of the ground commander who was Magtibay,” Lim said. For his part, Moreno expressed surprise over his inclusion on the list of officials and media personalities recommended to face charges for the hostage crisis. In a television interview, Moreno said he only did his job and that his actions led to the release of nine of the 21 hostages, most of them Chinese nationals, during the initial stage of the 12-hour standoff. Both the Chinese and Hong Kong governments praised the 83-page report as a serious one, but there is still lingering suspicion among the Hong Kong public. Hong Kong legislator Ronny Tong said the report's biggest flaw was its inability to rule out that friendly fire had killed some of the tourists. The report said while available evidence supports the conclusion that gunman Rolando Mendoza killed all eight Hong Kong citizens, this needed to be confirmed by ballistic testing. Philippine officials have previously said police bullets may have hit some of the victims. Tong said that while the findings of official wrongdoing help pave the way for victims to seek financial damages, “the report has not achieved the goal of uncovering the truth.” Survivor Li Yick-biu, who was among an early batch of hostages released by Mendoza, complained the report didn't explain how another badly wounded hostage was hurt, the South China Morning Post reported Tuesday. Youngster Jason Leung remains in a coma from a serious head injury. The Leung family, Hong Kong natives who hold Canadian passports, have become an emotional focal point in the aftermath of the tragedy. Mother Amy Ng is the only member who escaped unscathed. Her husband and two other children were killed. “The tragedy reflects the serious corruption in the Philippines, in government and police,” Li was quoted as saying. Hong Kong's Apple Daily said in a front-page headline the report “has not done justice to the victims.” Beijing was more conciliatory. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a news conference Tuesday that the report “shows the Philippine side is taking great care with this matter and that is something China would like to positively affirm.” A radio station Tuesday also rejected accusations that its live interviews with a hostage-taker had prevented a negotiator from contacting the hijacker. Aquilino Pimentel, lawyer for Radio Mindanao Network, criticized the committee's call for three of its staff to be prosecuted for holding phone interviews with the hostage-taker. The probe accused the radio station of monopolizing the phone link to the hostage-taker and stopping police negotiator from getting through to him to put forward a deal. The hijacker began shooting shortly afterwards. The official inquiry into the disaster also called for the country's top three television networks to be punished, saying their reports allowed the hijacker to follow police movements on the bus television set. The networks declined immediate comment on the inquiry.
