Gunman's brother to seek forgiveness
The brother of Manila hostage-taker Rolando Mendoza wants to attend the Coroner's Court in Hong Kong to tell his side of the story and ask for forgiveness.
'I am very much willing to give my personal testimony in order to give the truth,' said Gregorio Mendoza, a senior police officer who stands accused of being his brother's accomplice.
Philippine Justice Secretary Leila de Lima announced yesterday that Mendoza would visit Hong Kong along with several police crime-scene investigators who examined the tour bus shortly after a shooting tragedy in August left eight Hongkongers and the hostage-taker dead. Lima did not name the investigators.
Hong Kong has invited 116 Filipinos to appear at the inquest. Lima said the responses of all those invited would be 'strictly voluntary'. So far, only Mendoza and the crime-scene investigators are confirmed travelling to the city.
Mendoza showed his letter of invitation from Hong Kong coroner Michael Chan Pik-kiu requesting his presence to 'shed light' on the event.
'If I do go, I intend to ask the victims for forgiveness,' he said. He did not specify what he wanted the victims to forgive and said he had not talked the matter over with his lawyer.
Mendoza was charged this month with carrying an unlicensed pistol during the August 23 hostage fiasco, but a Hong Kong legal practitioner and a lawmaker said yesterday that they saw no reason for that to prevent him from testifying at the inquest in Hong Kong. 'The charge itself would not be a reason to bar Mendoza's brother [from coming] to Hong Kong,' Huen Wong, president of the Law Society, said.
James To Kun-sun, chairman of the Legislative Council security committee, said that even if Mendoza had to be placed under custody on the gun-possession charge, Hong Kong law enforcers could handle that under the existing mutual legal arrangement.
In contrast, Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, whose order to handcuff Gregorio Mendoza helped set off Rolando Mendoza's shooting rampage, reiterated to reporters on Monday that he was snubbing the Hong Kong inquest.
'I will not go there,' Lim said, because 'if we are going to attend their investigation, then we are just making a mockery of an authority of the Philippine government', which had already finished its investigation.
He said Manila's investigation showed that 'Mendoza was found to have been the one who killed the tourists. What else is there to investigate? I have already responded and given my side [of the story].'
Manila vice-mayor Francisco Domagoso also said he was declining the invitation sent to him because it merely said 'if you wish to attend, call us', and therefore 'we could refuse'.
Mendoza criticised their stance, saying Lim, a former police general, should attend the inquest alongside him 'so culpability would be determined'.
'If [Lim and Domagoso] are in good faith, why not attend? I am in good faith, that is why I am going,' he told the top-selling Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper.
To said the refusals of Lim and Domagoso to testify were hurting Sino-Philippine relations. It showed 'they did not respect China's sovereignty and did not give China face at all', the legislator said.
Beijing's ambassador to Manila, Liu Jianchao , expressed optimism during the embassy's Lunar New Year reception on Friday.
'I think we'll enjoy the assistance of the Philippine side, so I think that when the coroner's probe opens its inquest, we'll have the assistance from the Philippine government,' Liu said.
'And I think this is important and I hope such assistance will also help the Hong Kong coroner's probe fulfil its mission.'
