MANILA, Philippines?Alberto Lubang, 38, had just parked the Hong Thai Travel bus in front of Manila Cathedral in Intramuros at around 9 a.m. on Monday when he noticed the man wearing a baseball cap and fatigues and carrying a long rifle.

After several dozen Hong Kong Chinese he had picked up an hour earlier from Manila Pavilion Hotel returned from a visit to nearby Fort Santiago, the man approached the bus and asked where Lubang was heading.

?When I told him, ?airport,? he asked if he could hitch a ride,? the driver said in a statement to police recounting the 11 hours he spent as a hostage of former Senior Insp. Rolando Mendoza who was killed as police stormed the bus to end the hostage drama.

?While we were nearing Luneta, the man said, ?Sorry, you are now my hostages.??

Diana Chan, one of the tour guides, translated to the stunned tourists what the man, who introduced himself ?Captain Mendoza, Manila police? had said.

?I thought that he was joking but realized he was serious when he told us, ?I am going to hold everyone of you hostage until 3 p.m.,? and he promised not to hurt anyone,? Lubang said. He was ordered by Mendoza to drive toward Quirino Grandstand.

An early promise

An elderly woman complaining of diarrhea was freed, along with Chan, with instructions to call the police to inform them that he had seized the bus.

At around 9:30 a.m., a police team led by Chief Insp. Romeo Salvador, arrived to begin negotiations. Mendoza said he wanted to discuss his sacking by the Ombudsman and said no harm would be done if his demands were met. ?That?s a promise.?

When Supt. Orlando Yebra, the chief police negotiator, arrived, Mendoza handed him a thick folder and told the police official to hand it over to the Department of Justice and the Office of the Ombudsman. In exchange, Mendoza released a woman and three children.

Tsang Yee Law got her two children, aged 4 and 10, and on the way out saw 11-year-old Jason Wong and took him with her as well, said Gwendolyn Pang, the Philippine National Red Cross secretary general.

Tsang?s husband, Fu Cheuk Yan who was left behind, was among those killed.

Jason?s parents dead

Also among the fatalities were Jason?s father, Wong Tze Lam, 50, and his mother Yeung Yee Wa, 45. Jason?s sister Tracey, 16, was among the survivors.

In all, eight hostages were freed during the day. Mendoza had even asked the tourists if they were hungry and directed Lubang to call the Hong Thai Travel agency and ask for food.

Lubang said the officer told him he hoped the media people would also come so that the driver would become famous.

?There was no tension. He was calm. He did not hurt any of the passengers at that time and he occasionally made a joke, but he was serious in his goal. He told us, even the foreigners, that he was dismissed because of a wrong decision and he had nothing to do with what happened. It was his men who were responsible,? Lubang said.

He recalled Mendoza talked with media people on his phone. ?But if the caller was a member of his family, he refused the call. Maybe he did not want to lose his resolve.?

The hostage-taker?s brother, SPO2 Gregorio Mendoza, came in the afternoon and was disarmed before being allowed to make a plea for an extension of the 3 p.m. deadline set for the compliance of his demand for reinstatement.

After discussions at the rear of the bus, Mendoza asked the negotiators to return his brother?s gun.

?This is garbage?

As night fell, the negotiators and Gregorio Mendoza returned carrying several documents.

?The way I understood it, those were from the Ombudsman,? Lubang recalled. But after Mendoza read the documents, he shouted, ?This is not what I asked for. This is garbage. Return these. The decision I want is not among those.?

Before walking away, Gregorio told his older brother that his gun had not yet been returned. Lubang said this angered Mendoza, who fired a shot. ?They are liars. I don?t want to talk to them.?

Lubang said Mendoza was further enraged when he saw on the bus television that his brother was being handcuffed. Mendoza yelled that he was going to kill the hostages if his brother was not released.

Arrest triggered carnage

After the negotiations collapsed, Mendoza ordered the hostages to go to separate seats and spread out, according to accounts given by survivors to Red Cross volunteers.

Mendoza then started shooting at a handcuffed tour guide on the aisle, according to Lubang.

?I was watching through the rear view mirror and I pleaded with him to let me go because I had a family. But he barked at me to move the bus forward. I could not because the tires were already flattened by sniper fire. I pleaded with him again to let me go,? Lubang said.

He said Mendoza kept on firing, screaming in Filipino that the police should release his brother or he will finish off all the hostages.

Desperate, Lubang was able to break free of his handcuffs using the cuticle remover of a nail cutter. He then slipped through the small window on the driver?s side and ran away, shouting, ?Pinatay ng lahat yung mga hostage! (He killed all the hostages!)? With reports from Philip C. Tubeza and Jocelyn R. Uy