The Philippine president took control of the national police Friday as disgraced senior officials acknowledged that serious lapses had led to the deaths of eight Hong Kong tourists who were taken hostage on a hijacked bus last week. President Benigno Aquino III told reporters he was taking responsibility for the Aug. 23 debacle that drew the ire of Hong Kong and Beijing, with losses from tourist cancellations hitting millions of dollars and the Philippines reeling from bad publicity. Aquino, facing his first major crisis after barely two months in office, said he was temporarily taking over supervision of the police from the interior secretary. “At the end of the day, I am responsible for everything that has transpired,” Aquino said. His spokesman, Sonny Coloma, said the president was determined to reform the police force. An investigation into the botched rescue effort began Friday with Interior Undersecretary Rico Puno _ who had been put in charge of police operations during the hostage crisis _ and national police chief Jesus Verzosa saying the authorities' objective was to exhaust the gunman through negotiations because police thought they could save all the lives. The 11-hour negotiations with the hostage-taker, dismissed police Capt. Rolando Mendoza, who was demanding his job back, came to an abrupt end when he started shooting his captives after watching his brother being handcuffed by officers for interfering in the negotiations, police said. Eight Hong Kong tourists were killed before Mendoza was fatally shot by police sharpshooters. Seven other tourists were rescued, three of them seriously wounded. Mendoza, armed with an M-16 rifle and a pistol, had earlier released nine of the original 25 hostages. Puno said there were “a lot of chances” when sharpshooters could have shot Mendoza but the crisis committee decided “to save everybody.” “The observation at that time was we really had a cooperative hostage taker,” he said, agreeing with an investigator that authorities had failed to properly assess Mendoza's frame of mind. He also said the assault team did not have the right equipment to break into the bus. Investigators also noted that it took police nearly two hours to decide to assault the bus after Mendoza made an “adverse” move by firing a shot before negotiators left the scene for the last time. Verzosa said the “tipping point” came when Mendoza saw footage of his brother being taken into police custody on a television inside the bus. The hearings by a government-civilian committee were televised live and observed by several Hong Kong investigators. They are to continue through early next week, after which a report will be submitted to Aquino. Hong Kong police are conducting their own investigation.
