Over a hundred people joined Saturday in the funeral of a bemedalled police officer who hijacked a bus in a bloody incident that left eight Hong Kong tourists dead earlier this week, DPA reported.
Some of the mourners wept quietly as they followed the cortege of dismissed senior inspector Rolando Del Rosario Mendoza in Tanauan City in Batangas province, 85 kilometres south of Manila.
Mendoza was killed Monday in a botched police rescue operation that ended the 11-hour standoff at a seaside park in downtown Manila.
Mendoza, sacked for alleged extortion, seized the bus full of Hong Kong tourists, to demand that he be reinstated.
Relatives and friends said they wanted to remember Mendoza for his good deeds and not as a hostage-taker.
The hijacking and the subsequent bungled rescue bid outraged citizens of the former British colony and triggered angry reactions from Hong Kong and Chinese officials.
Six police officers, including a general who served as the ground commander in the bungled operation, have been relieved from their posts.
President Benigno Aquino III, who was severely criticized for making himself scarce during the crisis, vowed to punish those responsible for the failed rescue bid.
Television footage showed the police assault teams, composed of members of special weapons and tactics unit of the Manila police, struggling for about an hour before they breached the bus and killed Mendoza.