Of course, no one condones how Mendoza demanded justice which was to hijack a tourist bus full of Hong Kong nationals on a holiday visit. At the end of a 10-hour crisis that showed bungling by authorities, eight of the Hong Kong nationals were killed.
The actions of President Aquino during and after the grim incident had set a chain of diplomatic bunglings that have lasting effect on relations with China.
Update from ABS-CBN: Hong Kong will hold a public inquest into the Manila bus hijacking crisis which left eight Hong Kong tourists dead in August, a spokeswoman for the coroner’s court said Wednesday.
The inquest is scheduled to last 25 days starting from February 14, she told AFP, less than a month after Hong Kong police concluded their probe into the poorly-handled fiasco which dented relations between Manila and Hong Kong.
The announcement, made by Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda confirmed what had been talked about in the diplomatic circle : the Philippines had been told by China unofficially that they would not welcome the delegation as long as they don’t see anybody being made accountable for the tragedy that killed eight of their people.
Lacierda, who was supposed to be part of the delegation together with Vice President Jejomar Binay and Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo, said, “The Chinese foreign ministry could not schedule us.”