Disgrace of a model policeman thrown out of force for corruption
For nearly 30 years, Rolando Mendoza was an exemplary policeman. Graduating with a degree in criminology, he rose from patrolman to become senior inspector. He was decorated 17 times, with medals citing his bravery and honour. His colleagues at the Manila Police District said he was hard-working and kind.
But this was not the person that Christian Kalaw met in 2008. According to the young Kalaw, then a chef working at a hotel, Mendoza and several policemen accosted him over an alleged parking violation, then proceeded to plant sachets of methamphetamine (shabu) in his car. Accusing him of being a drug addict, the policemen allegedly demanded he empty his automatic teller machine and hand over the money.
Kalaw said that when he couldn't produce any cash, the policemen punched him, threatened him with their guns and made him eat shabu to make him fail a drug test. In exchange for not filing drug charges, they asked for 200,000 pesos (HK$34,400). Kalaw managed to contact a friend who raised 20,000 pesos, and the policemen released him.
His narrative became a viral e-mail that wound up on the screens of Manila's mayor as well as that of the national police chief. Mendoza and his men were investigated and he was suspended for extortion. Last year, the Office of the Ombudsman ordered Mendoza dismissed from the service, forfeiting all his benefits.
Yesterday, the 55-year old ex-policeman, a father of three (one of them a policeman), suited up in a camouflage suit, equipped himself with an assault rifle and a pistol, boarded a bus full of Hong Kong tourists and told them they were his hostages. The fact that he announced the hijacking when the bus was in front of the Quirino Grandstand, one of the country's most historic locations, got him immediate national attention. It seemed a long fall for an officer who, in 1986, had been named one of the country's top 10 policemen.
But Mendoza's brother, 52-year-old Gregorio, said that all the ex-policeman wanted was a fair hearing by the Ombudsman, which allegedly ignored a motion to reconsider its decision. 'They never even gave him a chance to defend himself; they immediately dismissed him.'
Gregorio, who is a Manila traffic policeman, said: 'All he wants is for the Ombudsman to resolve his case fairly.' He pointed out that the Philippine National Police's Internal Affairs Service had already dismissed the charges, but it was the Ombudsman that moved to dismiss his brother. His brother said that without any benefits, 'life would have no meaning for him', Gregorio added.
Gregorio pointed to his brother's record, noting how in February 1986 Mendoza led a group of policemen that flagged down a van which turned out to be carrying 13 crates full of money. The cash, worth 65 million pesos, was loot the dictator Ferdinand Marcos was trying to spirit out of the country. Mendoza and his team turned the shipment over to authorities, and he won a citation.
Yesterday at the police precinct near the captive bus, one of Mendoza's nieces, who declined to be identified, said her uncle 'was a good man'. She added: 'I have no idea why he did this.'
Mendoza posted this message on the windshield of the bus he had hijacked, perhaps revealing how torn he was about his actions. It read: 'Big mistake to correct a big wrong decision.'
