Duterte apologizes to China for 2010 Manila hostage tragedy

President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday apologized to the Chinese people nearly eight years after a policeman held hostage a busload of tourists and killed eight Hong Kong residents at the Luneta Park in Manila in 2010.

Duterte issued the apology in a speech before thousands of Filipino workers in Hong Kong, where he was to cap his four-day working visit to China.

"From the bottom of my heart, as the President of the Republic of the Philippines, and in behalf of the people of the Philippines may I apologize formally to you now," the President said.

“We are sorry that the incident happened and as humanly possible I would like to make this guarantee also that it will never happen again. I hope this would go a long way to really assuage the feeling of the Chinese people and government,” he added.

Duterte said it was only proper to apologize since the incident happened in the country, which was then under President Benigno Aquino III.

“There has been no official apology coming from the Philippines regarding that incident,” the President said.

Hong Kong had been demanding an apology from Aquino for the August 2010 tragedy, which set off a diplomatic row that caused the Chinese special administrative region to cancel the 14-day visa-free privilege for official and diplomatic Filipino passport holders.

But Aquino steadfastly declined to apologize, saying that doing so would create a legal liability.

He also cited Filipino fatalities in China for which Beijing had not apologized and paid compensation.

In 2014, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada went to Hong Kong to formally apologize on behalf of the city for the incident, which came after dismissed police officer Rolando Mendoza seized a tourist bus and held hostage 25 Hong Kong residents at the Quirino Grandstand.

Mendoza and eight hostages were later killed in a botched rescue attempt. —KBK/NB/BAP, GMA News