Kin of Manila hostage victims start online petition for justice

MANILA, Philippines—Apparently still smarting from President Aquino’s snub last week, the family of a victim of the Aug. 23, 2010, hostage-taking crisis in Manila has started an online petition asking Chinese president Hu Jintao to talk to Aquino about their demands in their stead.

The online petition at www.petitiononline.com/HK823 requests Chinese authorities to “ask for justice” from the Philippine government over the failed rescue and subsequent deaths of eight Hong Kong nationals killed by hostage-taker and dismissed police officer Rolando Mendoza at the Quirino Grandstand in 2010. Mendoza was also killed in a botched attempt by police to rescue the hostages.

Although written in Chinese characters, the online petition could be roughly translated using the free online tool https://babelfish.yahoo.com.

The tool reveals that the petition, which has gathered 5,883 signatures by Sunday noon, seeks to preclude a forthcoming visit of Aquino to China.

The petition was started under the e-mail account of Tse Chi Kin, the older brother of slain tourist guide Masa Tse Ting Chunn, around Thursday last week. Tse Chi Kin, his mother Lee Mei Chun and younger brother Tse Chi Hang, were listed as the first signatories of the online petition.

The translation reveals that the bereaved Tse family was already aware that during their visit to the Quirino Grandstand tragedy site last Tuesday to memorialize the anniversary of Masa’s death, Aquino was only “several hundred meters” away inspecting a new warship at a Manila pier.

The Tse family, in the petition, said that Aquino’s refusal to meet with them and apologize, and insistence that only Mendoza was liable for the hostage\ were “extremely irresponsible.”

Hong Kong legislator James To Kun-Sun, accompanying the Tse family and hostage crisis survivor Lee Ying Chuen and a lawyer for two other victims, made the same observation last week in reaction to Malacañang’s imputations that the visit was politically colored since To was running for elections.

“They only want to shift the attention [away from the issue],” To had told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. “The [victims] sought help from me. This [visit] was a totally normal, reasonable and proportional dealing.”

In an interview last week at the Quirino Grandstand, Tse Chi Hang told Philippine reporters that they would be seeking for help from both the Chinese and the Hong Kong government to obtain justice for the victims of the hostage-taking tragedy.

He said that aside from a personal apology, they were asking for compensation, holding government officials accountable for the tragedy, and the safeguarding of tourists in the future.