Hostage victims' kin arrive in Manila from HK

Hong Kong officials and relatives of some of the hostages in Monday's Manila hostage crisis arrived in the country early Tuesday to tend to the victims. Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim said they are coordinating with HK officials and relatives of the victims, who he said arrived before dawn. "The victims relatives arrived before dawn today [Tuesday]. We are helping them with what they need," Lim said in an interview on dzBB radio. Earlier, a separate report on dzBB said some officials of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region came along with the victims' relatives. Lim said they are ensuring the "comforts" of the traumatized survivors of Monday's incident. At least 10 people, including hostage taker, dismissed Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza, were killed in Monday's crisis. "Sa ngayon inaayos namin ang kanilang comfort, ang kanilang natitira na nabuhay na turista. Ang kanilang pangangailangan inaayos namin (For now, we are making sure the surviving victims are comfortable. We are trying to meet their needs)," Lim said. He also said he had been coordinating with Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman in relieving the stress of the hostages. "Kasama kami kagabi hanggang 2 a.m. (We stayed up until 2 a.m. today)," he said. — LBG, GMANews.TV