TANAUAN CITY, Batangas – A well-loved policeman here in his native town of Banadero, Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza seemed to be someone who deserved a hero’s funeral. But the Quirino Grandstand hostage tragedy, which he perpetrated, changed all that for the bemedalled cop.

Rolando, 55, was laid to rest at 3:42 p.m. Saturday at Himlayan ng Tanauan, in a burial witnessed not only by the entire province, but by the entire country and even by eyes across the South China Sea in Hong Kong.

The burial ground itself was filled with local and foreign journalists, and townfolk who appeared shaken at how the once-proud policeman attained such infamy.

Over 1,000 people – not a small figure by the town’s standards – gathered at St. John the Evangelist parish here in Tanauan to pay their last respects to Rolando even as the fallen cop’s family tried to grasp what has hit them since the day of the hostage last August 23.

Only Rolando’s police cap adorned the white casket after it was stripped of the Philippine flag on Friday night due to protests from citizens in Hong Kong, whose eight countrymen perished during the bloody end of the hostage crisis.

“Patay na ang anak ko! Hindi ko sukat akalain na wala na siya (My son is dead, I never would have imagined that he would be gone) exclaimed

the hostage-taker’s mother, Aurora, as her son’s white casket was being moved out of St. John at 3 p.m. after an hour-long necrological service.

At least four relatives had to restrain the grieving mother.

A 25-minute procession from the church to the cemetery followed, with Rolando’s casket carried on foot by at least a dozen men. Tailing the procession were four buses and several more jeeps and private vehicles of mourners.

SPO2 Gregorio Mendoza, Rolando’s brother, opened the casket and draped a white cloth on the body.

The family, it was gathered, placed Rolando’s fatigue uniform – the same one he wore during his last hours alive – inside the coffin. Rolando himself was dressed in the police uniform he once proudly wore.

The scene was especially painful for the hostage-taker’s youngest son, Inspector Bismark Mendoza, who was not in Manila when the hostage-taking occurred. He gave a final salute to his father and fellow police officer as the coffin was lowered into the ground.

“Wala na akong maririnig na kumakanta sa bahay. Wala na akong maririnig na gagamit sa videoke namin. Hindi ko na siya makaka-inuman kahit kalian (I’ll never hear him singing at home anymore. I’ll never hear him using our videoke. I won’t be able to drink with him anymore),” Bismark said, his eyes welling up.

“Hindi ko man lang nakita ang last smile niya (I did not even see his last smile),” added Bismark, who was also wearing his uniform.

Even locals who were not related to the Mendozas expressed strong feelings yesterday. Marcos Lucido Valdez, an overseas Filipino worker, took the microphone at the church and told his fellow Batangueños “to hold their heads up high.”

“Huwag po natin ikahiya si Mendoza, ang ating mabait na kapitan (Let us not be ashamed by Mendoza, our good captain),” Valdez declared.

When asked if he was good friends with Rolando, he answered: “Ka-barangay po niya ako (We’re from the same town).”

Bismark later in the afternoon in their home expressed thanks to the people who supported his family throughout their ordeal.