Five witnesses failed to testify via video conference on Tuesday for the Hong Kong inquest into the August 23, 2010 Manila hostage tragedy. The Hong Kong Coroner's Court had set up a video link to Manila to interview the Filipino witnesses who supervised the post mortem examinations of the victims in the tragedy. However, the police officers informed the court at the last minute that they could not appear for the video conference and will postpone the interview to either Thursday or Friday this week. Superintendent Chan Lok-win who was in the Philippines as part of a Hong Kong team told Coroner Michael Chan Pik-kiu that no witness showed up. Chan explained that at around 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, she received a call from the supervisor of the five officials of Philippine National Police (PNP). The supervisor said the five officials could not provide their testimonies on Tuesday. The five persons were:
Chief Insp. Daniel Lomboy, PNP Crimelab’s firearms identification division chief; Supt. Sabino Bengson; Chief Inspector Joseph Palmero; Chief Inspector Shanne Lore Dettabali, and Chief Inspector Benjamin Venancio Lara. Dismayed The people in the Hong Kong court on Tuesday were dismayed upon learning that the video conference would be cancelled. Outside the Hong Kong court, Lee Ying-chuen, one of the survivors of the tragedy said “this is irresponsible, this is not how the government should do, and we are angry, very angry" when asked by media about the attitude of the Philippine government on the cancellation of the supposedly testimony of the witnesses. Tse Chi Kin, brother of one of the victims, said their family was very disappointed with the Philippine government. He said that the Philippine government should respect the government of Hong Kong. Gregorio Mendoza, brother of hostage-taker was also scheduled to testify tomorrow (Wednesday) in the Coroner’s Court via video link conference. It was the 22nd day of inquest into the Manila hostage tragedy on Tuesday at Court No. 7 of Hong Kong's High Court. On August 23 last year, a dismissed Philippine policeman, Rolando Mendoza, took hostage a bus with tourists from Hong Kong to demand for his reinstatement into service and the dismissal of the charges against him. At the end of an 11-hour standoff, eight Chinese tourists from Hong Kong were killed along with Mendoza. - VVP, GMA News 
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