A departing Hong Kong police officer was held at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Thursday morning after finding in his possession slugs and bullet casings believed to be pieces of evidence in the August 23 bus hostage-taking in Manila.

Members of the Philippine National Police Aviation Security Group (PNP-ASG) stopped Hong Kong Police Chief Inspector Li Kwai-Wah from boarding Cathay Pacific flight CX900 which was scheduled to depart at 12:30 p.m. after the discovery of the apparent pieces of evidence.

The PNP-ASG said its personnel discovered four .223 caliber Armalite bullets and casing and four .45 caliber bullets and casings in Li’s handcarried bags.

Security personnel manning the X-ray machines discovered them.

Department of Justice (DoJ) Undersecretary Jose Vicente Salazar rushed to the airport to facilitate in speaking with Li.

Salazar said Li had initially presented to the PNP-ASG a clearance for the bullet casings and slugs that was issued by the Philippine National Police (PNP) but was not able to produce the authorization from the DoJ.

Salazar said that due to an order by the DoJ, specifying that everything related to the case must be accompanied by a clearance issued by the office, the PNP-ASG was forced to hold Li together with the evidence found in his possession.

The Hong Kong police officer was taken to the National Capital Region Police Center for Aviation Security (NCR-PCAS) headquarters in Pasay City.

Meanwhile, the documents he had presented were being verified and the DoJ informed of the incident.

Salazar arrived at the NCR-PCAS with a signed authorization for the pieces of evidence.

He said the slugs and shell casings found in Li’s possession were in fact the property of the Hong Kong Police investigators.

He explained that the bullets belonged to the Hong Kong investigators and were fired from Captain Rolando Mendoza’s Armalite rifle and .45 caliber hand gun, which will use in their ballistics investigation.

With everything cleared, Chief Inspector Li was allowed to proceed with his flight back to Hong Kong aboard another Cathay Pacific flight which left at 5 p.m.

Meanwhile, Malacañang left to General (ret) Jose Angel Honrado, Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) General Manager, the responsibility to sort out the reported apprehension of a Hong Kong police officer at the airport.

Herminio Coloma of the Presidential Communications Operations Group said airport authorities could have just wanted to find out the circumstances behind the bagful of empty shells carried by at least one Hong Kong police investigator.

“Those are factual issues we have to sort them out and check the veracity. If they were indeed held, we can easily call the general manager of the Manila Airport, Angel Honrado. We are confident he will do what needs to be done administratively,” Coloma said.

“They could have just wanted to clarify the circumstances,” he said when authorities reportedly interrogated one or two Hong Kong investigators.

On the reported mix-up of bodies of Hong Kong victims of the hostage-taking, Coloma said the probe committee led by Justice Leila de Lima should take cognizance of the matter. (With a report from Genalyn Kabiling)