The younger brother of Rolando Mendoza, the man who murdered eight Hong Kong tourists aboard a tour bus in Manila on Aug 23, 2010, has expressed willingness to testify at the Hong Kong inquest into the slaying, Coroner Michael Chan Pik-kiu said Wednesday.

The brother, Manila police officer Gregorio Mendoza, is the man whose arrest by Manila police during the closing minutes of the hostage tragedy is believed to have set off Rolando Mendoza's murderous rampage.

Rolando Mendoza, a disgraced ex-policeman, seized the Hong Thai Travel bus to force his demand to be reinstated to the police force after he was dismissed for corruption.

His brother Gregorio traveled to the location where the hijacked tour bus was parked and was later heard inciting his brother and exhorting him not to surrender.

The younger brother then was seized by police and hustled away a few minutes later. Rolando Mendoza, seeing the live coverage of the arrest on television, started shooting his hostages. The gunman died later in a hail of police bullets.

The inquest into the eight deaths entered its 18th day Wednesday. Coroner Chan said the Chinese Embassy in Manila was made aware Friday that Gregorio was interested in giving video evidence to the inquest.

The surviving Mendoza brother has no passport and is not permitted to travel outside the Philippines. That was his reason for proposing to testify by way of a video link from Manila.

Subject to the approval of the Filipino justice minister, Hong Kong police will fly to Manila to make prior technical arrangements. As far as Chan knows, Hong Kong police officers are ready to set off at any time once approval is given.

Chan, however, noting the failure of cooperation with Philippine authorities thus far in the Hong Kong investigation, expressed no confidence that the authorities in Manila would prove any more cooperative in the present circumstances.

The Philippine Justice Department has not replied to the request for assistance from Hong Kong.

Initially 116 Filipino citizens were invited to testify at the Hong Kong inquest. So far none have come. Seventy have declined outright. Others have not replied.

The court Wednesday summoned forensic pathologist Ying Ho-wan, a medical officer from the Department of Health, who conducted the autopsy on Fu Cheuk-yan, one of the slain hostages.

Three bullet fragments were found in Fu's body, said Ying. The gun shots were found in his left leg, right back and left chest near the stomach. Fu said he believed the third bullet was fatal because it struck the chest, causing serious damage to the heart, lung and aorta.

"It was a rapid death, meaning he would die in a few minutes," he told the hearing.

Based on the available evidence, he said he can only conclude that the gun shot fragments were caused by high-velocity rifles, such as M16 rifles, from mid-range.

The court also summoned Cheung Kwok-keung, a government chemist, to give evidence for the second time.

As confirmed by DNA analysis, he said the result matched with Ying's examination result that Fu was struck by three gun shots.

In giving evidence, Ng Chung-ki, a senior medical officer from the Department of Health, said he conducted autopsies for victims Leung Kam-wing and Yeung Yee-wah.

As for Leung, he said in his original report that he found three gun shot ruins from his body.

After seeing the autopsy report from Manila police, he realized there were two ruins as he had mistaken another wound as a gun shot ruin. The first shot struck his left chest near the neck and ribs, causing a very large wound, and the second shot hit his right upper arm.

Leung was seriously wounded by the first shot, said Ng, but the two shots killed him almost immediately because his lung and aorta were struck.

China Daily

(HK Edition 03/10/2011 page1)