MANILA, Philippines - A Hong Kong legislator on Thursday said the mislabeling of the coffins of three victims in the Manila hostage crisis was a "small matter," adding that an independent investigation into the August 23 crisis was more important to them.

In an interview over Al Jazeera, Hong Kong Legislative Council memeber Emily Lau stressed that what they want is an "independent, open, and fair" investigation.

"It seems that things are quite chaotic over there. We think [the coffin mislabeling] is a small matter. What we are concentrating on right now, and in fact as we speak now there is a debate going on in the legislative council on this very subject, and we in Hong Kong are demanding an independent, fair and open investigation, and they must publish the report to give a full account to the international community," she said.

Lau also said they want Hong Kong authorities to take part in the investigation.

"What we are demanding, in fairness, is an inquiry, and that Hong Kong authorities are trying to take part in that investigation, and we hope that the Manila authorities would be willing to include the Hong Kong team in their investigation," she said.

"It's not a question of infringing on the Philippine sovereignty, no. We respect that. But we hope that because so many of our people lost their lives, we hope that they involve our people in the investigation and we hope that the investigation will be able to answer many very, very troubling questions," she said.

"There are Hong Kong police officers and other experts in Manila right now. They have been there for quite a few days, and they have been given permission and full support from the Philippine authorities - and we are happy to see that - but we are conducting our own investigation, and the Manila authorities are doing theirs," she said.

She said that there will be another uproar in the former Crown Colony if the results of the separate investigations of the Philippine and Hong Kong authorities differ from each other.

"What we don't want to see is that we have two reports coming out at the end of it - a Philippine report and a Hong Kong report - pointing to different conclusions. And if the Philippine report's conclusion is very different from the Hong Kong report, then I think we may have another uproar again in Hong Kong. And we don't want to see that," Lau told Al Jazeera.

"We hope that we can work together and make sure the report has integrity and has transparency, and then everybody will know - at least those who would like to know - what has happened," she said. Kris Danielle Suarez, abs-cbnNEWS.com