Hostage Taking involving Foreign Nationals

It was a nightmare for the Philippines. The hostage taking and the bloodshed was no one’s wish but it happened. “Why of all the buses in Manila, a foreign one?” was my initial question but as the day of the hostage taking went along, hundreds of questions flood my mind. “Surely, our relations with the international community will be affected specially with China and the Hong Kong”, I concluded after all the things that happened during that day. True enough, I’ve read so many articles with different opinions and sentiments from different people around the globe. A lot criticizes the actions of the authorities regarding the matter and it all boils down to blaming the government, the administration. Fortunately, some tries to understand and not blame but instead, suggests working together for a faster justice.

After the incident, there have been a lot of decisions from both countries. Hong Kong has declared Philippines as part of the blacklisted countries. Yes, they reserve all the rights to do so to help protect their citizens. Surely, this decision will affect the country’s tourism. Many have cancelled flights to the Philippines. Also, there were news that Filipino citizens in Hong Kong are being maltreated and discriminated although there are no official report yet. Personally, I try to understand the Hong Kong nationals, they are emotional and sympathetic about what happened but I plead that they must also realize that the Filipinos in their country and in the rest of the world is not Mendoza, they did not kill not hurt anyone from the country where they are staying then they don’t deserve to be treated as such. With all these, a high delegation was set to go to Hong Kong to explain the incident to the officials of the foreign country but weren’t able to push through since Hong Kong wanted a result once they officially meet. Seeing all these, it will not be easy for the Philippines to neutralize relations with Hong Kong. But our president never loses hope as he said in his speech “Given enough time we can recover”.

I have been reading comments in the articles related to the issue. The comments of our very own citizens break my heart. It seems that we are not working as one nation in here but instead we blame others to be responsible for this incident. Some Filipinos blame the government, some curses the foreign nationals. Most probably, these citizens of the Philippines are not aware of the possible effects of what happened. Maybe they are not aware that breaking our good relations with a foreign country such as Hong Kong and China will affect our economy. I pity our young administration for many are blaming them. I agree that they should have taken part of the responsibility during the day of the hostage taking but not alone in this.
After the Flor Contemplacion case, this one’s the next well-known tragedy that involves the Philippines. If not because of media, this will not be as this big issue. Let’s admit it, from all around the world, there are a lot of foreign nationals being killed and are deprived of justice but getting this much attention from everybody is not the real trend. Media has played a big part in the hostage taking. I just hope that since they were able to show the world what happened during the tragedy, they will also be able to emphasize the actions of the authorities to resolve this problem.

Damage has been done to the relations of the Philippines with the foreign countries. I believe that what we can do now is help each other not blame. I hope our government is doing their best in the investigation to resolve this problem and give justice to all those who died. Let us stop giving so much attention to the little things like PNoy’s smiles during the incident. We have to be more mature in this issue and focus on the things that has to be done to bring back our good relations with the foreign country and continue praying for the souls of those who died.