Coffins mix-up after Manila tragedy

Three coffins used to bring back some of the eight Hong Kong tourists killed in last week's Philippine hostage crisis were mislabeled, a Hong Kong government spokesman said Thursday.

The mix-up was discovered after the family members of one victim went to a Hong Kong mortuary to identify their dead relative, only to find the coffin contained the body of another victim of last week's hijacking of a bus full of Hong Kong tourists in Manila.

According to AFP, senior Hong Kong officials and weeping relatives had laid wreaths on the mislabeled coffins at a somber airport ceremony in Hong Kong last week.

"Three of the coffins were wrongly labeled," a government spokesman told AFP. "When the bodies were at the mortuary in Hong Kong, the error was discovered."

The blunder was made at a Manila funeral parlor before the bodies were flown to Hong Kong, the spokesman said, most likely when the victims were transferred from plain coffins to more elaborate caskets.

Philippine Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who is heading the probe into the hostage tragedy, told AFP that she was unaware of any mislabeling.

"If there was a mix-up of those names, we apologize. It was really the desire to facilitate and bring the bodies to Hong Kong as quickly as possible," Philippine Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman told the AP.

Also Thursday, de Lima revealed that the chaotic final moments of the hostage siege would be re-enacted Monday as part of the probe.

De Lima encouraged full press coverage of the event to ensure that the probe was transparent.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong lawmakers passed a motion Thursday demanding that the Philippine government apologize and pay compensation to the families of victims.

Agencies