Evidence of hijack survivors tallies with bus driver's
Hong Kong survivors of the bus hijacking in Manila have corroborated testimony by the driver that the hostage-taker shot the victims at close range, a senior official said.
Philippine Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, head of the inquiry into the August 23 hijacking in which eight tourists were killed, said yesterday the statements of five survivors given to Philippine police in Hong Kong last week matched the testimony of bus driver Alberto Lubang.
Lubang told the inquiry last week he watched in the rear-view mirror as Rolando Mendoza, a sacked police officer who seized the busload of tourists in a bid to regain his job, walked down the vehicle shooting the victims one by one.
Lubang managed to escape shortly before police commandos launched a bungled rescue.
'The accounts of the survivors corroborate the claim of Lubang,' she said. 'The one who shot was Mendoza and it was more or less close range, using an Armalite rifle.'
Based on the survivors' statements, de Lima said, it appeared at least two of the victims died trying to tackle Mendoza. 'One tried to grab the muzzle of the gun, but was killed,' she said. 'Another one charged the hostage-taker, but was also shot.
'It would appear from the survivors' account that Mendoza's shooting [of the hostages] happened before the assault.'
When de Lima was asked whether she was ruling out the possibility that hostages were killed by 'friendly fire', she said only results of the DNA and ballistics tests by Hong Kong police could settle that. However, 'in all likelihood' Mendoza killed all the victims, based on the witness accounts of the Hong Kong survivors and the driver, she said.
So the inquiry is likely to rule out collusion between Lubang and Mendoza, she said.
Lubang's evidence had raised questions, as physical evidence did not support his assertion that the victims were shot at close range. The gunshot wounds of the suspects and their clothes showed no tattooing - marks left by gunpowder commonly found in close-range shootings.
However, de Lima said: 'The autopsy reports from the Hong Kong authorities contain certain explanations that the absence of tattooing is not indicative or not conclusive of the fact that it was not close range.'
De Lima said their report, to be released tomorrow, would recommend which officials should be held criminally and administratively liable for the botched rescue.
Some in the media might also be liable because 'we have to remember that there are limits to press freedom in the interest of public order'.
However, she raised the possibility that the panel might clear members of the police SWAT team. 'They didn't have proper training. They didn't have proper equipment. And probably they didn't get the right instructions and the right directives.'
