Philippine president Duterte apologies for Manila bus hostage tragedy for first time on his visit to Hong Kong

It has been eight years the victims' family looks for an apology from the Philippine officials after the Manila bus hostage crisis leading nine deaths, of eight Hong Kong people, and a belated apology has been finally sent out by the Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on his visit to Hong Kong.  

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte speaks during a meeting with the Filipino community in Hong Kong, Thursday, April 12, 2018. Duterte is on a three day private visit to Hong Kong. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte sings as he attend a meeting with the Filipino community in Hong Kong, Thursday, April 12, 2018. Duterte is on a three day private visit to Hong Kong. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Duterte upended all previous leaders with steadfast refusal to admit the fault of the botched rescue approach spending more than 10 hours and resulting eight deaths of Hongkongers when a tour bus with 20 tourists was hijacked in Manila. 

"For the first time – the Chinese government and the people of China have already been waiting for this – there has been no official apology coming from the Filipinos regarding what happened in August 2010," Duterte told publicly a gathering of the city's Filipino residents.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte attends a meeting with the Filipino community in Hong Kong, Thursday, April 12, 2018.Duterte is on a three day private visit to Hong Kong. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

"May I address the Chinese people who are here. From the bottom of my heart, as president of the Republic of the Philippines, and on behalf of the people of the Philippines, may I apologise and say sorry that the incident happened and as humanly possible I would like to make this guarantee – it will never happen again."

The apology has a round of applause from the about 2500 attendants at the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal. 

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte attends a meeting with the Filipino community in Hong Kong, Thursday, April 12, 2018. Duterte is on a three day private visit to Hong Kong. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte attends a meeting with the Filipino community in Hong Kong, Thursday, April 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Former president Benigno Aquino had refused to apologise for the handling of the crisis. The official statement used words "most sorrowful regret and profound sympathy" to brief the incident in his term of the president. 

Now, the outspoken president on his three-day visit to Hong Kong said he hoped his apology would go a long way to really assuage the feelings of the Chinese government and people. 

He said it was only right to apologise, "What is really needed is just to say we are very sorry, we apologise."

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, center, attends a meeting with the Filipino community in Hong Kong, Thursday, April 12, 2018. Duterte is on a three day private visit to Hong Kong. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Black travel alert against the Philippines was issued after the terrible rescue attempt had left 13 Hong Kong tourists injured in Manila’s Rizal Park until 2014, the two governments and the victims' family reached an agreement with an unrevealed amount of compensation given by Manila. 

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte attends a meeting with the Filipino community in Hong Kong, Thursday, April 12, 2018. Duterte is on a three day private visit to Hong Kong. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

The attitudes of a survivor and the family members of the victims were diverse after knowing the apology from the president. 

"The Philippine government has been evading its responsibility over the tragedy for the past eight years until now, when eventually a representative from the government has offered an apology. It is a form of respect to the victims’ families," said Tse Chi-kin, elder brother of tour guide Masa Tse Ting-chunn, who was killed in the incident.

He hoped the government would take the experience of the incident to avoid future tragedies. 

Tse Chi-kin, elder brother of tour guide Masa Tse Ting-chunn, who was killed in the incident. (Online photo)

However, survivor Yik Siu-ling, whose lower jaw was shattered by a bullet, had undergone 50 times of reconstruction surgery and is still in treatment, said, "I think that the apology was not sincere enough. He [Duterte] should instead offer it in written form … He should at least write us a letter or meet us formally."

She thought the belated apology would not mean much to the victims’ families.

Survivor Yik Siu-ling, whose lower jaw was shattered by a bullet, had undergone 50 times of reconstruction surgery and is still in treatment. (Facebook photo)

Democratic Party lawmaker James To Kun-sun, who helped the affected families, believed the apology, although late, was a positive sign.

"Duterte is, after all, an elected president and he apologised on behalf of the Filipino people. I believe that it can help improve the relationship between Hong Kong and the Philippines," he said. 

ATLANTA (AP) — The creator of the widely debunked film “2000 Mules” has issued a statement saying “inaccurate information” was provided to him about ballot box surveillance videos featured in the film and apologizing to a Georgia man in one of those videos who was falsely accused of ballot fraud during the 2020 election.

Filmmaker and conservative pundit Dinesh D'Souza said in the statement that the film and the book of the same name were based on cellphone geolocation data collected by True the Vote. The Texas-based nonprofit also provided him with drop box surveillance footage and D'Souza said his team had been “assured that the surveillance videos had been linked to geolocation cell phone data, such that each video depicted an individual who had made at least 10 visits to drop boxes.”

Gwinnett County resident Mark Andrews is seen in one of the videos, his face blurred, putting five ballots in a drop box in Lawrenceville, an Atlanta suburb, as D’Souza says: “What you are seeing is a crime. These are fraudulent votes.”

A state investigation found that Andrews was dropping off ballots for himself, his wife and their three adult children, who all lived at the same address. That is legal in Georgia, and an investigator said there was no evidence of wrongdoing by Andrews.

The film suggests that ballot “mules” aligned with Democrats were paid to illegally collect and deliver ballots in Georgia and four other closely watched states. An Associated Press analysis found that it is based on faulty assumptions, anonymous accounts and improper analysis of cellphone location data.

D'Souza's statement says interviews in the film make clear that True the Vote “was correlating the videos to geolocation data.” But, he wrote, “We recently learned that surveillance videos used in the film may not have actually been correlated with the geolocation data.”

He acknowledged that the film and book “create the impression that these individuals were mules that had been identified as suspected ballot harvesters based on their geotracked cell phone data.” Though their faces were blurred, Andrews has publicly come forth and sued over the use of his image, and D'Souza said he owes Andrews an apology.

He said the surveillance videos in the film “were characterized on the basis of inaccurate information provided to me and my team" and that if he'd known they weren't linked to geolocation data, “I would have clarified this and produced and edited the film differently.”

But D'Souza said he continues to have confidence in True the Vote's work and in the basic message of the film, that the 2020 election was not secure and "there was systematic election fraud sufficient to call the outcome into question.” State and federal authorities have said there was no evidence of widespread fraud in that election.

True the Vote issued a “clarification” Monday on D'Souza's statement. It says the central premise of the film “remains accurate,” but says it had no editorial control and didn't select the videos or graphics used. Andrews was not part of the “geospatial study” True the Vote did, “a fact that was communicated to Mr. D'Souza's team.”

“Despite this, D'Souza's team included a blurred video of this individual in their ‘2000 Mules’ movie and book productions,” the statement says.

Andrews filed a federal lawsuit in October 2022 against D’Souza, True the Vote and Salem Media Group.

Salem Media Group, the publisher of “2000 Mules,” issued a statement in May apologizing to Andrews and saying it had removed the films from its platforms and would not further distribute the film or book. A few days later, Andrews dismissed his claims against Salem.

D'Souza said his apology to Andrews was not made “under the terms of a settlement agreement or other duress, but because it is the right thing to do, given what we have now learned.” Lawyers for Andrews did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

FILE - Author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza the keynote speaker at the Republican Sunshine Summit addresses the audience Friday, June 29, 2018, in Kissimmee, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)