[The Wire] Interview with Manila local police officials

Posted on by TICSConference
  • (pp) – What exactly happened in the Facebook office building? Who was taken hostag by whom?
  • We are at the moment unable to identify the hostage takers and we did not recieve any demands so far. The hostages are supposedly around 70 Facebook emplyoees. We want to point out that there are no child workers among them. Child labour does not exist in the Philippines.
  • When did the hostage start?
  • It started around five hours ago. Yet, we are not able to identify any of the hostage takers.
  • Have you been able to make contact with the hostage takers or the hostages.
  • No, we haven’t been able to make contact so far.
  • What are the next steps you are planning to take?
  • We are planning to evacuate the surroundings of the office building. However, we will not allow any police or military intervention in the building as we don’t have any information on weapons or explosicve devices used by the hostage takers and could not guarantee the security of the hostages. Saving the hostages’ lives is our biggest priority. We are worried that the Philippine government focusses more on protection of data than on human lives. We are outraged that our glorious city of Manila is left alone by the government.