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Irene Jay Liu

Martin Wong

Raissa Robles

Three mobile phones mistakenly handed to Hong Kong police after the hostage tragedy are back in the hands of Manila authorities as five Philippine law enforcers arrived in Hong Kong yesterday to investigate the tour bus hijacking.
One of the three mobile phones contains the SIM card of hostage-taker Rolando Mendoza,  a policeman told an inquiry into the shootings yesterday.
Eight Hong Kong people were gunned down by Mendoza, who was then killed in the August 23 tragedy.
Junior policeman Denison Rivera said he agreed to lend his phone when assistant negotiator Romeo Salvador told him that the battery of the bus driver's mobile had run down. This was the phone initially used by police negotiators to contact Mendoza. 'At that time, the unit [of bus driver Alberto Lubang]  was the only one being used. I removed my SIM card and it was replaced by the SIM card of Mendoza,' Rivera said.
Lourdes Amansec, the assistant general manager of Direction Travel and Tours, which owns the tour bus, said the other two phones belonged to the Filipino bus driver and to a Filipino photographer who accompanied the tour group.
As part of the Philippines' investigation into the incident, assistant state prosecutor Cielito Celi,  police Senior Superintendent Lorlie Nilo Arroyo,  police Superintendent Reynaldo Dimalanta de Guzman,  National Bureau of Investigation  head agent Danielito Lalusis and the bureau's ballistics expert Perla Landicho  flew to Hong Kong yesterday.
Philippine Justice Secretary Leila De Lima signed an authorisation for them to travel to Hong Kong from Sunday to Friday of this week.
Three of the five Philippine law enforcers were seen entering and leaving police headquarters in Wan Chai yesterday. But they declined to comment. A police officer familiar with the situation said the three mobiles were given to the Philippine delegation as the two parties met. 
While one of the tasks of the delegation is to collect statements from the hostage survivors, Undersecretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok  said: 'Under the mutual legal assistance agreements signed between Hong Kong and the Philippines, we will offer them copies of statements we collected from the survivors earlier.' 
The police officer familiar with the incident said Hong Kong law enforcers so far had interviewed some but not all of the survivors. 
As the Philippine delegation wanted to interview survivors, Lai said Hong Kong police would try to arrange a meeting for them.
Several officers from the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau  made a brief visit to two survivors, Joe Chan Kwok-chu  and Yik Siu-ling  at Prince of Wales Hospital yesterday. It is not known whether they tried to seek their consent for a meeting with Philippine officials.
Meanwhile, hundreds paid a final tribute to Masa Tse Ting-chunn,  the 31-year-old tour guide killed in the hijacking, at a funeral service at the Universal Funeral Parlour  in Hung Hom yesterday. He was then cremated at Cape Collinson Crematorium.
A night vigil for three victims, Wong Tze-lam,  his wife Yeung Yee-wa  and sister-in-law Yeung Yee-kam  will be held at the Universal Funeral Parlour on Thursday.



Cellphones given to HK police by mistake back with Manila officials