The uproar has not quieted. Police Officer Rolando Mendoza’s hostage-taking turned-out to be carnage. His body has been buried but the tragedy opened a canned of worms. More questions are left unanswered.
Rolando Mendoza was not insane when he took the hostages. He was fully-aware of what he was doing. His demeanor was not of a deranged man. That made the gravity of his offense more heinous and sinister.
Police officers deal daily with hoodlums and crooks in the streets and even in the gated houses and towering buildings of the high and mighty. Over time, the policeman loses his distinction from that of the hoodlum. Like chameleons, the pursuers cannot anymore distinguish themselves from the pursued. The wall that separates police work from criminal activities recedes in the background. Here is a case of a policeman now the criminal.
When the concept of right and wrong is blurred, then you will have people like Mendoza taking the law into their own hands for the perceived injustice done to him. During the hostage drama, Mendoza was in his full mental capacity; at least, before the shooting, he acted that way.
But while he was sane, this cannot be said of his sense of morality, his sense of fairness and justice.
Mendoza exemplified selfishness of the beast of the jungle that kills in order to eat, which for animals, is synonymous with survival. How else can you rationalize, if there is still even a reason for the whole incident, to hold the lives of innocent men in peril in the pursuit of one’s call for justice? How can you kill invoking that justice be rendered?
Mendoza’s action was most contemptible. No hyperbole or any other figure of speech can describe a man like him. If he were insane, society would excuse his act. But he was clearly rational. If he were the ordinary criminal who took hostages, then you would not anymore question the motives. For heaven’s sake Mendoza was a police officer whose duty it was to save, not take lives. And he took lives with him.
The choice of Mendoza’s victims was calculated. He wanted to internationalize his misdeed by picking-up innocent foreign tourists so that the media uproar would be global. He did not only plan to kill but also wanted to drag Philippines in his infamy.
The hostage –taking and the multiple murders that followed not only killed innocent lives but exposed our countrymen to dangers abroad. The hate-reaction against the Filipinos abroad due to the incident is widespread. Already, Pinay domestic helpers in Hong Kong have been terminated from employment. Our image as a nation has been tarnished. Tourism too has been adversely affected.
Mendoza’s flair for the sensational and eye for impact did not elude him. He owed that to his training. Taxpayers’ money was used. Unfortunately, he used his skills for the wrong reasons which are unforgivable. And the victim is Philippines that paid for his training.
While we condemn the man, we may have to revisit the social milieu he was into. The man co-exists with his society. Society should share the blame. Since all of us are particles of society , we too take the blame. Otherwise, it well to easy to judge but hard to attribute the blame on us.
In the 80s, Mendoza was a decorated policeman. His medals could well attest to that. The anecdotes of his fellow policemen speak highly of the man. Early in government service, he was promising.
In the 90s he was dragged in the gang-rape incident, and much later, the extortion case which led to his dismissal from public service. Mendoza’s career was in a downhill. The reasons may be varied. These reasons we may never know.
It is of public knowledge that some in the police force have initially shown dedication in service but later in their careers, they deteriorate. The meager pay has been the off-quoted reason why policemen engage in criminal activities. In urban centers, the salaries of policemen cannot cope with the cost of living. A monthly salary of P15,000 cannot afford a decent living in the big cities. For them, the only way to survive is to follow the ways of the criminal.
Men after all belong to the animal kingdom. Man’s animal instincts surface when he is pressed with the matter of survival. Recall that the primitive man before he was part of a community was basically a hunter, killing other animals to survive.
No, this is not an apology for Mendoza. His acts are dastardly and his calculating mind has created a global uproar. Neither is this an apology for society that has been producing such animals clothed in civilized apparel.
