MANILA, Philippines - The National Bureau of Investigation's (NBI) technical presentation during Wednesday's hearing of the government's Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC) gave a glimpse of the bloodbath that happened during the last minutes of the 12-hour hostage drama last August 23.

The presentation made by 2 members of the Biology and DNA Section was the shortest, but most morbid.

"Plenty of pool of blood where there are [bullet] holes in the window. Whenever there is a hole in the window, there is pool of blood spilling on the floor or on the seats," Beverly Vidanes, forensic biologist of the NBI, told the panel of investigators.

Vidanes and forensic chemist Gemma Orbeta told the panel that blood stains were seen on 5 seats on the right side of the bus and 5 seats on the left side of the bus.

There were also 9 blood spots seen on the right side and 6 spots of blood on the left side. There were also traces of blood at the entrance of the bus.

Vidanes said there were also "dense blood pool on row 6 of the bus and row 4 of the right side of the bus," and there was blood "splattering on Seat 8-A on the window side."

The seats being referred to by the biologist were at the rear portion of the bus.

Using a 3D illustration of the bus, NBI ballistician Ronan Masacupan said that 23 shots were fired from the middle portion of the Hong Thai Travel tour bus.

All shots were aimed at the rear portion of the bus, where the Hong Kong tourists were gathered by the hostage-taker, dismissed police senior inspector Rolando Mendoza.

The ballistician also said that based on their investigation, there were 9 bullet holes on the left side of the bus, 7 of which were created by shots fired from outside, and 2 from inside.

The tourist bus has 20 bullet holes in the right side, 19 of which were fired from outside and one was fired from the left side of the bus that went through and through "exiting to the door frame."

There are 9 holes at the front portion of the bus, 7 were created by shots fired from inside, and 2 from outside the bus.

The ballistician said there were 3 bullet holes found at the rear portion of the bus, 2 were created by bullets fired from inside the bus, and 1 was fired from outside at the back wall of the bus' comfort room.

Bullet holes in bus' seats

In another presentation, NBI's senior forensic chemist George de Lara told the panel that 2 bullets hit Seat No. 39 of the bus, 3 hit seats No. 16 and 40 "coming from the inside and outside, respectively."

De lara said 12 bullet holes were also found in backrests of the seats, 2 were found in Seat 23, one in Seat 31, one in Seat 35, 4 in Seat 40 and 4 in Seat No. 43.

There were no conclusions made during the presentation, and the panel of investigators did not question the NBI men.

The panel was in a hurry for an ocular inspection of the tourist bus, which was parked at the police's Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig.

NBI Director Magtanggol Gatdula said their ballistic examination has yet to be concluded because they are conducting jointly it with the Hong Kong police.

Gatdula said the NBI team that flew to Hong Kong to coordinate with the Hong Kong police may have the results upon their return on Friday.

De Lima said the panel would be asking from the NBI a longer session for a more layman's presentation of the results of its investigations.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) declared days after the hostage drama that based on their initial investigations, the bullets that killed the 8 Hong Kong tourists were fired by the hostage-taker.

The announcement was made amid suspicions that shots fired by the assault team dispatched by the Manila Police District could have also killed some of the hostages.

The hostage-taker, during a live interview over RMN radio, claimed that he initially shot dead 2 tourists. The shooting happened after policemen arrested Mendoza's policeman brother, Gregorio Mendoza.