Henry Tang, Hong Kong's chief secretary for administration, placed white wreaths on the caskets as bagpipers played. Several survivors of Monday's hostage drama and family members of the slain victims were also on the plane home. One seriously injured teenager remained in a Manila hospital, and a female gunshot victim was to be transported home on a separate medical flight.
MOST of the victims who died in the botched hostage rescue attempt Monday were shot in the neck and head, an official said Wednesday.
“Five were Hong Kong nationals and three were Canadian citizens—four females and four males,” National Police spokesman Agrimero Cruz Jr. said.
“The Canadians were two females and one male,” he said during Wednesday’s press briefing to discuss the details of the autopsy on the victims.
The dead included hostage taker and dismissed policeman Rolando Mendoza.
Cruz said the victims took bullets from “high-powered firearms” that still must be sorted out.
“We’re still determining what type of caliber [from retrieved] metal fragments,” he said.
“Many were hit in the head and the neck,” he said, rejecting media reports that a victim was slashed in the neck.
Cruz said Mendoza himself had eight gunshot wounds.
“Two were in his neck and one in his head, the fatal one,” he said.
The bullets that hit Mendoza were mostly from the Special Weapons and Tactics team of the Manila Police District.
“The fragments are still being examined. From all indications, snipers’ bullets killed Mendoza,” Cruz said.
He said three of the victims were not autopsied at the request of family members, but the complete report would include the bullet trajectories.
POLICE are looking into a claim that the slain hostage-taker Rolando Mendoza went to Fort Santiago Monday morning using a car that was later driven away by his female companion, an official said Wednesday.
“I will have it investigated,” Metro Manila Police chief Leocadio Santiago Jr. said after a witness said he saw Mendoza taking an M-16 rifle from the back compartment of a Toyota Vios before boarding a bus marked Hong Thai Travel.
Lawyer Jose Adolfo Cruz, a labor relations officer, said he was in his office across the entrance of Fort Santiago when he saw a car stop near the tourist bus.
He said that after the driver in a “battle-dress attire” got inside the bus, a “middle-aged” woman in the front passenger seat took the wheel and drove away.
Feeling something was amiss, Cruz called the attention of a Marine security detail who was posted in the vicinity of Palacio del Gobernador, where the Commission on Elections head office is located.
“When challenged, the man told the Marine officer that he was cop assigned to escort the tourists,” Cruz said.
“I was later told by the Marine officer that the man had shouted at the bus driver to close the door and proceed to their destination.”
Cruz said that it was only through the radio that he learned about the hostage-taking by what turned out to be a dismissed police officer.
National Police Highway Patrol Group chief Leonardo Espina said they were tracing the ownership and whereabouts of the Vios.
Mendoza’s relatives said he left his home in Tanauan City, Batangas, early Monday morning, saying he would be turning over the firearms that had been issued to him.
Bus driver Alberto Lubang said they were about to leave Fort Santiago when the armed suspect in a blue police T-shirt and camouflage green pants came aboard and ordered him to proceed to the Luneta Grandstand.
Lubang was seen on television fleeing from the bus, saying he was able to pick the lock of his handcuffs with a nail cutter.
ASIAN action superstar Jackie Chan on Wednesday assured Filipinos Hong Kong would not retaliate following Monday’s tour bus hijacking that resulted in the death of eight of its residents.
“[Hong Kong] is a nation built by a lot of different people,” Chan said in his Twitter account.
“Don’t worry! We do not hate!
“This kind of thing always happens around the world. It happens to [Hong Kong] people. The whole [Hong Kong] is talking about it. It’s really sad.
“If they killed the guy sooner, they will say why not negotiate first? If they negotiate first, they ask why not kill the guy sooner? So sad.”
Chan made his assurance after the Philippines appealed to Hong Kong people to refrain from taking out their anger on Filipinos following the incident.
The Philippine government recognized the “backlash” caused by the deadly siege and was “doing everything” it could to contain it, Edwin Lacierda, a spokesman for President Benigno Aquino III, said Wednesday.
The government might start an investigation this week into the country’s deadliest attack on foreign tourists, he said.
The comments came after photos were posted on a Hong Kong government tribute page on the Facebook Inc. networking Web site that included police officers posing in front of the bus.
The captions on some photos contained derogatory language. Thousands of Filipinos live and work in Hong Kong, many as domestics.
“Our Facebook page is intended to allow members of the community to extend their condolences to the victims and their families,” Andy Ho, a spokesman for Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang, said in an e-mail.
Ho said that while Facebook postings could not be screened in advance, the government had “been removing offensive materials as they are identified.”
A former police officer took 25 people hostage on the tourist bus Aug. 23 to protest his dismissal from the force and demand his reinstatement.
Eight members of a Hong Kong tour group died in the rescue attempt.
The 12-hour standoff and its bloody ending were broadcast live on television, with footage relayed around the world. The assault team had “inadequate” skills and failed to control the crowd or media, according to a Philippine police review.
