- Joined
- Apr 9, 2009
- Messages
- 3,070
- Points
- 0
HE WAS a top cop who was honoured as one of the best police officers in the Philippines. But Rolando Mendoza, a former senior police inspector, found himself on the other side of the law yesterday.
The 55-year-old, upset by his dismissal from the police force, held a group of Hong Kong tourists hostage, killing seven of them. Mendoza, who graduated from the Philippine College of Criminology with a degree in criminology, joined the police force in 1981, according to local media reports.
He soon rose through the ranks and won several awards, including the 10 Outstanding Policemen of the Philippines award in 1986, said the online edition of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. But he was discharged in 2008. According to newspaper reports, he was among five officers who had been charged with robbery, extortion and grave threats after a Manila hotel chef filed a complaint alleging the policemen falsely accused him of using drugs to extort money.
Mendoza, who was reportedly due to retire next year, was stripped of his retirement benefits even though he denied the charges. His younger brother, Gregorio, also a policeman, said his brother felt 'injustice was done on him'.
'He was disappointed that he did well in police service but was dismissed for a crime he did not do,' he told reporters yesterday. 'His problem was he was unjustly removed from service. There was no due process, no hearing, no complaint.'
According to the Inquirer, Mendoza is married with two sons and a daughter. One of his sons is also a police inspector. 'He is not in the state of his mind, he is not the same Captain Mendoza as before,' Gregorio told Al-Jazeera. 'According to him, he lost his life because of the dismissal.' -- AP, REUTERS
