Who was Rolando Mendoza?

       Senior inspector Rolando Del Rosario Mendoza was a decorated police officer. He was born on January 10, 1955 in Naic, Cavite. He has two sons, one of them an Inspector of the Bangued police in Abra, and one daughter. He graduated from the Philippine College of Criminology with a degree in BS Criminology. He entered the service in April 1981 as one of the defunct Integrated National Police’s (IMP) patrolman. In 1993, he became a Senior Police Officer 3 under the Philippine National Police (PNP) with the Western Police District (now known as Manila Police District (MPD)). In 2002, he was promoted to Inspector and then to Senior Inspector in 2005. The Jaycees international awarded Mendoza its Ten Outstanding policemen of the Philippines (TOPP) in 1986. He garnered 17 awards and commendations as multiple citations from the PNP. Among them are: PNP Medal of Commendation, the PNP Badge of Honor, PNP Efficiency Medal, PNP Merit Medal and the PNP Service Medal. Things started to go south for Mendoza when administrative charges were filed against him and three other officers and then dismissed for extortion and for forcing a chef to swallow Shabu. They were found guilty by the Ombudsman of grave misconduct for allegedly extorting Php 20,000.00 from Christian Kalaw, a chef at the mandarin Hotel. From the original police Report, “On April 9, 2008, Kalaw parked his car along VitoVito Cruz and was accosted by the policemen. They accused Kalaw of being a drug user and tried to extort Php 3,000.00 from him. The records also said Kalaw was forced by the policemen to swallow a sachet full of Shabu while they were trying to extort Php 20,000.00 from the chef at the headquarters of the Mobile Patrol Unit of the Manila Police District.” On October 17, 2008, the PNP Internal Affairs Service recommended the case be dismissed after Kalaw failed to appear in the proceedings. In August of the same year, the manila prosecutors Office Eight Division dismissed the case after Kalaw failed to appear during the preliminary proceedings. Mendoza was reassigned to the provincial office of the Autonomous region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in June 2008. But the reassignment never happened due to his 90-day suspension. Then on the early mornings of August 23, 2010, Mendoza hijacked a tourist bus full of Chinese nationals and Filipinos. He made the bus park in front of the Quirino Grandstand and had a standoff with police which took almost 13 hours. The ending was bloody with seven of the hostages dead as well as Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza