Philippines to restage hostage tragedy

Philippine authorities said on Thursday that their investigation into the deadly hostage taking in Manila that left eight Hong Kong tourists dead would include a reenactment of the siege's final moments, in the hope of learning where they had blundered.

Reuters

The Filipino driver of the seized tourist bus, who dramatically escaped from the vehicle's window moments before a bungled assault by unprepared police commandos, will help reconstruct the event.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the reenactment would take place on Monday at a police camp outside Manila, where the bullet-riddled bus was towed and examined by forensics experts.

Investigators plan to wrap up their work Monday before submitting a detailed report to President Benigno Aquino. De Lima said the report to Aquino would include a reconstruction of events, from the time sacked policeman Rolando Mendoza seized the bus with 22 Hong Kong tourists on board on the morning of 23 August, until its bloody end.

De Lima also said two of the survivors had agreed to be interviewed by Philippine police in Hong Kong, after earlier rejecting requests.

"They would help shed light on what really inside the bus, particularly the crucial moments when Mendoza started to act wrongly," she said.

Philippine authorities admitted to a string of blunders in handling the crisis, which has strained relations with Hong Kong, and de Lima said those responsible would be punished.

Meanwhile in Hong Kong, three coffins used to bring back some of the victims' bodies were mislabelled, according to a government official.

The mix-up was discovered Thursday after the family of one victim went to a morgue to identify their dead relative, only to find the coffin contained the body of another victim of last week's hijacking.

A senior Hong Kong official and weeping relatives had already laid wreaths on the mislabelled coffins at a sombre airport ceremony in Hong Kong last week.

The spokesperson said the blunder was made at a Manila funeral parlour before the bodies were flown to Hong Kong, most likely when the victims were transferred from plain coffins to more elaborate caskets.

Gwendolyn Pang, secretary-general of the Philippine National Red Cross, said the victims' bodies were correctly labelled before they left for the funeral parlour, but could not verify if the coffins had been properly tagged.