Friendly fire suspected in Philippines hostage deaths

President Benigno Aquino said he expects to get the investigators' final report into the hostage incident on Sept. 15, and pledged to fire officials found to have failed in their duties or file criminal charges against them.

"Our government is now focused on taking the necessary steps to prevent this tragedy from ever happening again," he said in a live interview on national television.

"Let me just say that this incident will not define this administration."

Armed with an assault rifle and a pistol, sacked policeman Rolando Mendoza took a busload of tourists hostage on Aug. 23 in a desperate bid to clear himself of extortion charges and get his old job back.

Eight of the tourists were killed and seven others were injured in the central Manila standoff.

Police initially insisted the bullets that killed the tourists were all fired from Mendoza's guns. Other bullets were fired into the bus by police snipers and an assault unit but they did not lead to fatalities, they had said.

But Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said Thursday: "There is a big possibility that there (was) friendly fire."

De Lima, head of an official inquiry, also said the forensic reports on some of the slain victims did not match the account of the driver of the tourist bus, who had told investigators the gunman shot the tourists at close range.

"What is crucial, occupying our minds, is if the shots were made at close range, (these) are not consistent with forensic findings," she added.

The entry points of the these wounds did not exhibit burn marks caused by the muzzle of a gun that was fired close by, she added.

Asked whether at least some of the victims could have been killed by "friendly fire," de Lima said: "We are not focusing (on that), but we should never miss that. Otherwise our report will be less than thorough."

The panel has asked the Hong Kong police to help with the ballistics aspect of the investigation, she added.

"Where did the shots come from, the hostage-taker, the assault team, or other teams? We doubt they all came from snipers and assault teams," said de Lima.

Ballistics experts say some of the bullets that hit the bus were fired from a distance further than the location of the snipers, raising the possibility that other units deployed in the area could have fired into the bus, she said.

Aquino has taken responsibility for the fiasco that has chilled ties with Hong Kong and damaged the Philippine tourism industry.

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