Manila, Philippines hostage drama on board Hong Thai Travel bus

The TV programming both on ABS-CBN and GMA were affected by the hostage drama that happened at the Quirino Grand Stand in Manila, Philippines on Monday, August 23, 2010.

The airing of some primetime TV series had to be moved to a later timeslot while other shows for the day also had to be cancelled to give way for the networks' news programs which had an extensive live coverage of the hostage drama.

ABS-CBN's TV Patrol even had a live video streaming online and was watched by people around the world, including the international news organizations who were picking up and reporting the story live and straight from the Philippines.

As seen on television, the hostage drama happened onboard a Hong Thai Travel bus, which had 25 Chinese tourists from Hong Kong.

The hostage taker was a former police officer identified as Rolando Mendoza, 55 years old, and was demanding to be reinstated to his job.

Mendoza reportedly hijacked the Hong Thai Travel Bus between 9am to 10am and the hostage drama lasted for almost 12 hours. It was resolved only after the hostage taker was killed by the assaulting team.

It's so unfortunate that 8 hostages died in the incident, reportedly killed by the hostage taker.

The tourists were already on their last day touring Manila, Philippines and were scheduled to return to Hong Kong 7PM the same day.

The said hostage drama was kinda shameful. It isn't good for the image of the Philippines and I just hope it would not affect the tourism industry of the country.