HONG KONG, China – A team of investigators from the Philippines interviewed on Wednesday 2 survivors of the August 23 hostage-taking incident in Manila.

Assistant prosecutor Cielito Celi of the Department of Justice (DOJ) said they were able to talk to Joe Chan Kwok and Amy Leung.

Kwok, whose hands were injured during the hostage drama, is still recuperating at the Prince of Wales Hospital.

Leung, meanwhile, was the first hostage freed by police from Rolando Mendoza.

She lost her husband and 2 children during the incident. Another son, Jason, is in a coma at the Teun Mun Hospital’s intensive care unit after suffering from a fractured skull.

Celi said they were moved to tears when Leung told her story.

“Ang hirap. Umiiyak siya. Dumating sa puntong naiyak yung translator at pati ako na rin naluha," he added. "I had to apologize to her as a Filipino."

On Tuesday, the investigators interviewed a couple, Lee Yick Biu and Lee Fung Kwan, who were among those freed by the hostage-taker.

"It was a very cordial exchange although I was cautious because I didn’t want to ask anything that may hurt them, Celi said. “You know what they went though.”

The DOJ official, however, refused to divulge more details about their Hong Kong mission.

He said they have sent all information they gathered to investigators in Manila.

His team, which includes National Bureau of Investigation agent Danielito Lalusis and ballistics expert Perla Landicho, earlier recovered the 3 cell phones used by Mendoza during the hostage incident.

The cell phones were accidentally turned over to Hong Kong police by their Filipino counterparts. 

The investigative team will stay in the former Crown colony until Friday before returning home. – with reports from Nadia Trinidad, ABS-CBN News