MANILA, Philippines - On the second day of the “clarificatory hearings” on the bloody turnout of the August 23 hostage crisis, the multi-sectoral investigative committee uncovered several more lapses from police and authorities who handled the incident.

In the course of threshing out the testimony of 1 of the negotiators, Police Chief Inspector Romeo Salvador, the Incident Investigation and Review Committee discovered that 1 of the cell phones used by the gunman was accidentally turned over to Hong Kong authorities.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo had asked Salvador how many cell phones were in the slain gunman’s possession at that time, to which he answered that he would not know given his vantage point from outside the bus.

The gunman, discharged police officer Rolando Mendoza, took hostage several Hong Kong tourists. After the almost 12-hour siege, 9 died including Mendoza.

Salvador, however, noted “yung isang cellphone na gamit namin…na-turnover sa Hong Kong authorities.”

He said a day after the incident, all personal effects of the hostages were given to the local homicide police. “They probably thought the cell phone belonged to 1 of the hostages,” he said.

The cell phone would be relevant to the investigation as it would determine the calls made or coursed to Mendoza before he opened fire and killed some of the hostages.

It was supposedly the cell phone used during Radyo Mo Nationwide's (RMN) fateful interview with Mendoza before he went on a rampage.

De Lima said: “We will further dig into that, kung kanino ang lapse…Why would it be turned-over?”

She noted the evidence submitted to the committee did not even indicate the serial numbers of the cell phones obtained from the scene. -- by Ira Pedrasa, abs-cbnNEWS.com