The court heard the Department of Justice in Hong Kong received the offer from its Manila counterpart over the weekend, hours after a security panel meeting urged the Philippine authorities to allow more witnesses to testify before final submissions were taken.

The witnesses are a National Bureau of Investigation illustrator who submitted drawings of bullet marks, two police officers who collected blood samples at the scene and a medico-legal officer who conducted the autopsy on the hostage-taker's body.

Chan said after considering the interests of all parties, he decided not to proceed with the additional witnesses.

He said their offer to turn up was also not promising, as seven Filipino witnesses had failed to testify as scheduled last week.

NATALIE WONG