MANILA, Philippines?(UPDATE) A cocky Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno on Saturday faced a panel investigating the police handling of the August 23 hostage-taking episode that left eight Hong Kong tourist dead, revealing how the local crisis committee appeared to have practically abandoned the situation at its most crucial hours.

The five-man Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC) resumed its marathon hearing at 10 a.m. at the Department of Justice building on Padre Faura Ave. in Manila.

?What I know was when the mayor [Alfredo Lim] left, I left also.... When I stepped out [of the command center in Rizal Park] I saw the SAF and others in uniform.... I wished them luck and told them to be careful. Then I went to the Manila Pavilion and I looked for a television. I asked for coffee from the bartender and told him to switch the channel to ANC. That's where I saw that there were gunshots already,? Moreno told the panel in a mix of English and Filipino.

?Who were left at the command post?? Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, committee chair, asked Moreno.

?I presumed all the [police] generals were there,? Moreno replied.

Members of the Hong Kong police, including a female prosecutor, observed the proceedings as they did on Friday.

The marathon hearing is scheduled to be concluded on Monday.

Moreno, a former movie actor and a long-time Manila vice mayor, admitted that he was not aware of the structure, specific functions, as well as the composition of the local crisis committee, but knew that he was acting as its vice chairman with Lim as the chairman.

Moreno said that he did not know the ?by-the-book? process of how the crisis management committee operates, beginning with its activation, but expressed belief that it became operational the moment that Lim ordered him to rush to the command center at Rizal Park and informed other city hall officials to be ?on standby? to respond to the situation.

But he believed that the crisis management committee was doing its task when it dispatched doctors, psychologists, and ambulances to the scene.

He also pointed out that the city officials like him did their own personal undertakings to help resolve the crisis, such as his three-hour round-trip from Manila to Quezon City despite a heavy downpour just to secure from Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez a letter to hostage taker Rolando Mendoza, promising the dismissed policeman that she would personally review his extortion case.

?Do you know that according to the protocol, members of the crisis management committee should be at the command post during the progress of incident?? Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo, IIRC vice chairman, asked Moreno.

?Hindi ko po alam,? the vice mayor replied.

Moreno also told the panel that he ?personally? felt that the situation was more a ?national crisis? than a local one as the captives were foreigners but kept that opinion to himself as he was more interested in a swift resolution of the hostage drama.

?In my opinion?I am not a specialist into hostage-taking, I don't have specialty in this situation?but I believe, on my personal level, that since those involved were foreigners, sana dumating na ang mga tao sa national level. That's my personal opinion,? Moreno said in reply to questioning by panel member Herman Basbaño, head of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas.

Moreno said he did not mention his opinion to Lim, head of the local crisis committee, and Chief Supt. Rodolfo Magtibay, who was the ground commander.

The vice mayor said he instead concentrated on his task, which was to meet with Gutierrez, and to be the ?postman? who delivered the Ombudsman's letter to the command center, for the negotiators to turn over to Mendoza.

Mendoza ignored Gutierrez's letter, calling it ?trash? as he wanted immediate reinstatement to the Philippine National Police.

On Friday, Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Rico Puno, designated by President Aquino to oversee the police force, told the panel that the hostage-taking incident was classified as a ?local crisis? and was at no point considered as a national crisis despite the fact that 22 hostages were Chinese nationals.

Moreno said the reinstatement of Mendoza was not discussed at the command center, and that it was the review of the extortion case that was suggested to be done.

?Had the reinstatement option been discussed, I would have gone to the Napolcom (National Police Commission),? Moreno said.

Moreno said that after the first shot fired by Mendoza, he believed the situation turned into a ?police operation? and his function as vice chair of the local crisis committee ceased.

Panel member Teresita Ang See wanted to confirm with Moreno her observation that both the chairman and vice chairman of the crisis management committee were not at the command center ?at the most critical moment,? referring to the period just before the assault.

?Well, you say most critical moment. That's your perception,? Moreno said.

Basbaño asked Moreno if he did not rush back to the command center when the firefight between the policemen and Mendoza broke out.

?Salubungin ko ang bala?? Moreno said.

Moreno said after all hell broke loose, he proceeded to the Manila Doctors' Hospital to check on the condition of the victims. A doctor told him that four of the Hong Kong tourists had been declared dead on arrival.

Earlier in his testimony, Moreno narrated that he was hopeful that the hostage crisis would end peaceably after he delivered Gutierrez's letter to Mendoza.

However, he was surprised when a furious Yebra returned with Gregorio Mendoza, the hostage-taker?s brother, and told everyone at the command center that he would charge Gregorio as a conspirator because he had further agitated his brother when he said that authorities had not returned his gun.

The group at the command center also learned from Yebra's co-negotiator, Chief Insp. Romeo Salvador, that Mendoza had tried to actually shoot them afterward because they were in the line of fire. Yebra thought that it was a warning shot.

Moreno said that Lim initially ordered Gregorio to be handcuffed but that ?with so many policemen there, there was not a single handcuff.?

Gregorio sat on a chair, guarded by a policeman, while Moreno discussed what had happened with another police official.

Moreno recalled Lim presided over a meeting with Magtibay, Yebra, and other police officials, in a separate room in the command center, apparently to discuss the implication of what Gregorio did and what to do with him.

When the group emerged from the room, somebody was already holding a pair of handcuffs. Still, Gregorio was not cuffed but instead was escorted by a policeman toward the door, Moreno said.

Minutes later, Lim left the command center. Moreno said he also left, feeling weak in the knees, and thinking his role in the crisis had ended.

Moreno said he also saw a group of heavily armed men who he presumed were either Manila's SWAT team or a military assault team, which made him think that there was already going to be a ?police operation.?

He said he wished the men luck and told them to be careful. Moreno then proceeded to the hotel where on TV, he saw Gregorio trying to fight off police efforts to get him inside a patrol car. He said that it was at the hotel that he monitored the assault.

Moreno indicated that he did not know that Lim had gone to the Emerald Restaurant to meet with government and police officials.

Basbaño noted that the crisis committee seemed to have left the situation in the hands of Magtibay.

Robredo asked Moreno if he was ?influenced by the decision? of Lim to leave the command center.

?In a way, I believe so... When I left, my perception was, umalis si Mayor, umalis ako, because I don't know the structure of the crisis committee, how it functions, I believed it was now a police operation, that's why I wished them [police] luck. Ang nangyari, nangyari nawala na kami sa picture because of this first shot [fired by Mendoza after he junked the Ombudsman letter],? Moreno said.