Family of Filipino Tourists Killed by a Crazed Man in Beijing

THIS IS A REPOST.


Think about this.
Interesting contrast/parallels......

The known facts are these:

On August 19, 2005, Emmanuel "Bong" Madrigal, a Manila-based Filipino
executive of the multinational Shell, was visiting Beijing on vacation
with his wife Vivian, his daughter Regina Mia, and two younger
daughters. That day, they rode a tourist bus to Tiananmen Square , the
heart of the capitol.

Upon arriving at the square, Emmanuel Madrigal was the first to
descend from the bus, followed by Vivian and Regina Mia. A Chinese man
wielding a scythe--in some reports it was described as a
sword--suddenly appeared out of nowhere and hacked Emmanuel across his
torso. He died on the spot. The man also attacked and seriously
wounded Vivian. He then slashed at and killed Regina Mia. By this
time, bystanders were trying to subdue the man, and Vivian shouted to
her two other daughters to get away and save themselves. Somehow the
girls made their way back to the hotel. Vivian was brought to a
Beijing hospital, where she died several days later of her injuries.

An Associated Press report still circulating on the internet states
that the killer was Wang Gongzuo, 25, a farmer from eastern China 's
Jiangsu province. He was sentenced to death for the murder of the
Madrigals and executed a few weeks later, in September. The AP report
states: 'Wang's motive for killing the two is unclear. After the
incident occurred the Beijing Morning Post reported that he had wanted
to 'affect society using extreme actions,' but didn't elaborate."

Reflect on the parallels. A family of vacationers on a tourist bus:
the Leungs and the Madrigals. A killer out to "affect society using
extreme actions": Mendoza and Wang. A massacre in a  public place of
symbolic significance: The Quirino grandstand, where the presidential
inauguration had been held just weeks before, and site of the civil
society protests against the Marcos regime; and Tiananmen Square ,
since ancient times the symbol of the centralized power of the Chinese
state, and site of the 1991 civil protests against the government.

In both incidents, the state failed miserably in protecting innocent tourists.

And there the parallels end.

President Aquino has apologized to the families of Mendoza ’s victims
and conveyed his sorrow to the people of Hongkong, Chief Executive
Donald Tsang, and Ambassador Lin Jian Chao. The Philippine National
Police acknowledge that they botched matters beyond comprehension.
Philippine legislators, ahead of their Hongkong counterparts, called
for a full investigation. Philippine media organizations are looking
to their own culpability in the affair. And masses of ordinary
Filipinos, on TV, radio, print, and the Internet, are expressing
collective horror, remorse and pity over the terrible fate of the
innocent tourists, and bow their heads in shame before the Hong Kong
people's sorrow and anger.

That is how it should be, that is only right. But.

To this day, five years after it happened, there is no public record
of any Chinese official acknowledging the tourist killings in
Tiananmen Square and apologizing to the Madrigals, much less the
Filipino people, for the murder of Emmanuel, Regina Mia and Vivian.
Not a single expression of regret that the Chinese police failed in
their duty to protect the lives of innocent tourists in the very heart
of Beijing, in the symbolic center of a state that prides itself most
of all for its ability to control and contain disorder. There was a
total blackout on the part of the Chinese press, and, according to
another news report, government censors quickly blocked many internet
sites where Chinese users had begun to post comments about the
killing. So we will likely never know what ordinary Chinese citizens
had to say about about the incident. Maybe some of them were actually
sorry for what happened.

The closest thing to expressed regret was in fact the final reported
action of the killer Wang, who waived his right to appeal the sentence
of execution, and got a bullet in the back of his head.

To add to the horror, it would appear that the Arroyo administration
was complicit in the silence. No public statement was ever made by the
Philippine government regarding the incident. Unlike in Hongkong, no
flags were flown at half-mast in Manila , and no three-minute silence
was observed to mark the deaths of the innocent Filipino tourists. No
demand has ever been made by any Filipino official for an apology, and
for an accounting.

A full investigation of the Quirino Grandstand killing is ongoing. But
what of that other killing, also in August, five years ago in
Tiananmen Square?