Palace: Hijacked bus not a tourist attraction

Malacañang on Wednesday appealed to Filipinos to stop taking pictures and strolling around the site of Monday’s bloody hostage-taking in Manila that left eight Hong Kong tourists dead. At a press briefing on Wednesday, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said Filipinos should be sensitive and “not trivialize the area" where the bloody hostage drama occurred. “We only ask Filipinos not to tarnish the incident… Please do not trivialize the area," he said. Lacierda said Filipinos who take pictures near the bus where 25 people, 21 of them tourists, were held hostage for 11 hours by a dismissed policeman, must “show respect" for the lives lost during the incident.

“Let’s respect the place for now, it’s a place of grief," he said. The disgruntled former policeman, Rolando Mendoza, was killed by members of the SWAT team that responded to the hostage crisis in a nighttime assault. Since Tuesday, the bullet-riddled bus has become an attraction of sorts for motorists and pedestrians, with some of them slowing down to get a closer look and even take pictures of it. Manila policemen have cordoned off the site and have likewise appealed to the public to be sensitive to the victims and their relatives. - Andreo Calonzo/KBK, GMANews.TV