HONG KONG (The Standard) – The Coroner’s Court conducting an inquest into the deaths of eight Hong Kong tourists in a hostage incident on August 23 in Manila Tuesday said it will be receiving evidence via video link from several witnesses from the Philippines.

The Coroner's Court said it received word from the Philippine Department of Justice about possible video-linked testimonies but the number of witnesses has yet to be confirmed.

Coroner's officer Jat Sew-tong said the government welcomes the offer as the testimonies can be done conveniently in the technology courtroom of the High Court.

The coroner invited 116 witnesses from the Philippines, but 71 have declined the invitations. The rest did not confirm if they will come.

Meanwhile, written statements from three Philippine witnesses were read out in court.

They were from Melenica Gonzales, who drove her alleged lover, gunman Rolando Mendoza, to Manila; Diana Chan, the Filipino tour guide on the bus; and Lourdes Amansec, an executive of Direction Travel and Tour that ran the tour on behalf of Hong Thai Travel.

Chan said she was able to send a text message to Amansec about the crisis before the gunman asked her to confiscate all the mobile phones of the hostages.

Amansec said she did not understand the message but, after failing to talk to Chan, was able to call a Filipino photographer, Danny Nebril, who was on the bus.

She said police did not at first believe a tour bus had been seized.

Amansec said she accompanied the police to the Quirino Grandstand to verify the incident.

She said she was able to talk to Mendoza over the phone. She remembered him telling her: "I will not touch the tourists. What I need is to be reinstated and get the benefits that I deserve."

Tears for victims
Six family members of Hong Kong people killed on a tour bus in last August's hostage incident in Manila broke down in tears as they recalled the identification of bodies.

They also shuddered at the system of autopsies in the Philippines as they testified before the coroner and a five-member jury at Tuesday's start of an inquest on the eight dead from the Hong Kong tour group.

They died after a sacked and disgruntled police officer who had seized the bus opened fire as a rescue attempt flopped.

The first to testify was Tse Chi-kin, elder brother of slain tour guide Masa Tse Ting-chun. He cried as he recalled identifying his brother's body in a Manila hospital the morning after the August 23 tragedy.

His brother was wearing a T-shirt and blue jeans, but "his shoes and watch were already gone," he said as his mother also sobbed.

He refused to let Manila medical examiners perform an autopsy, Tse added, as the family believed the methods appeared backward. "I was worried that my brother could not be recognized after the autopsy," he said.

A relative of a hard-hit family -- three of the five on the bus were killed -- recalled that Philippine authorities asked his sister-in-law, Amy Ng Yau-woon, to sign many documents despite her emotional suffering after the loss of her husband and two daughters.

Leung Kam-shing, elder brother of Ken Leung Kam-wing, who was killed, said Ng signed a form only to learn later it authorized autopsies. It was not the right time for her to comprehend and sign documents, he said. "When she became aware of it, it was too late."

Most of the relatives of the victims who attended the hearing said outside court they are upset about an investigation by the Philippine government that ended with top officials who oversaw the botched rescue operation not being disciplined harshly.

But Coroner Michael Chan Pik-kiu said the inquest is not expected to determine criminal or civil liability but to probe the cause of death of the eight Hong Kong victims.

The inquest will use testimony mainly from 34 Hong Kong witnesses. None of 116 witnesses invited from the Philippines -- including police officers, the bus driver and a reporter who spoke to gunman Rolando Mendoza -- have agreed to attend the hearing.

But depositions earlier submitted by some Philippine witnesses, including Manila police chief Rodolfo Magtibay, are to be read out.

Coroner's officer and senior counsel Jat Sew-tong said ballistics and forensic specialists and chemists will provide testimony to determine if all eight tourists were gunned down by Rolando Mendoza or hit by "friendly fire."

An inquiry in Manila found that Mendoza shot and killed all eight.

A medical specialist will also testify on whether any of the eight could have survived with better medical care, Jat said.

Jat also described the hearing as "a breakthrough in local courts" as three-dimensional animations would show situations. A 1:6 scale model of the coach and another of Rizal Park where the drama took place are also being used.

A couple released by the gunman, two Hong Thai Travel staff members and survivor Tsang Yee-lai testify Wednesday.