R.I.P

All the news networks such as CNN, BBC, CCTV9 and more were focused on one and one thing only for the whole day today.

At about 8am in Manila today, a tourist bus by Hong Tai was carrying 25 Hong Kong passengers when the bus was held hostage by an ex-policeman. The inspector was accused of accepting briberies and hence was suspended and kicked out of the police force 2 years ago. He claimed that he was being framed and wanted a reinstatement and re-look into his case again. He wanted to retire honorably, which will be by early next year and he needed the pension monies to survive.

The whole crisis lasted for the next 10 hours. During the whole crisis, all major news network broadcasted live of the event. It was calm initially and the negotiations between the hostage taker and the police force went went and the hostage taker even did release 10 of the hostages by batch.

Then suddenly, the whole event took a 360 degree turned. When i tuned into CNN, the Philippine special police force were forcing their way into the bus. They tried all the ways they could to break in. They smashed the windows, the emergency exit and even the main door but because of the security film that was on the glasses, they could not get in. Throughout the whole time, there were gun shots from inside the bus from a M16. There will visible bullet holes on the windows and there were no signs of any movements in the bus. Any survivors?

It was just like watching a movie from Hollywood or Hong Kong. Just that in this instance, the police force could not break in in seconds. It took them hours. There were fear that the hostages were all dead in the bus. At the end, just like in the movies, the hostage taker was shot dead in the head and half of his body lied hanging out at the main door.

At the end, out of the remaining 15 hostages, 6 of them were killed.

Isn't life unpredictable? Isn't life fragile. These Hong Kong travelers went to Philippines happily, promised a memorable holiday that they would enjoy. I am not sure when they reached Philippines but the sad thing is, they were supposed to leave and go back to Hong Kong tonight, but within the few hours from reaching the airport and returning home, 9 of them will never be able to see their family again. 9 of them will never be able to board the plane alive.

May they all rest in peace.