Agonizing wait for grieving families
Mass was offered by Resorts World Manila employees for the victims of the attack, June 2,2017. INQUIRER PHOTO/JOAN BONDOC
Grieving family members on Saturday waited outside a funeral home for the bodies of their loved ones to be released following an attack at the Resorts World casino complex that left 38 dead, including the assailant.
At the Rizal funeral home, where 18 bodies were brought, Myra Tengco had been waiting for her sister’s body since Friday afternoon, hours after a gunman stormed the casino hotel, fired his weapon and set it ablaze.
She said her sister, Arvi Gavino, was a casino employee with two children. Tengco said she could not understand how a gunman managed to enter the casino.
The gunman, whose identity was still unknown, entered the Resorts World Manila complex early Friday and set fire to the gambling tables, unleashing smoke that killed patrons and casino employees. He fled with $2 million in stolen casino chips, then forced his way into a room in an adjoining hotel and killed himself.
Of the total who died, 36 were guests and hotel staff who died from the smoke in the early morning attack, while a South Korean victim died apparently due to a heart attack during the evacuation. The suspected gunman was found dead in an adjacent hotel.
Gil Yongco rushed to the complex when his daughter, Hazel Anne, a casino employee, called as the confusion and violence unfolded. “She was asking for help because she said she was suffocating on the second floor area where she was,” a distraught Yongco said.
When company officials later announced the names of the hotel staff who perished, Hazel Anne was first on the list of 23 employees.
Some of the bodies were released to grieving families after hours of anguished pleas and outraged exchanges with the management of two funeral homes, Veronica and Rizal. “Everything’s disorderly,” a friend of one of the Taiwanese victims said.
Eighteen victims were brought to Rizal by Saturday, the second day of the vigil; less than half remained. The body of victim Hong Lee Pi was transferred to the Veronica funeral home, with friends and relatives walking after the hearse. Three other Taiwanese died in the incident, namely Lei Wei Chung, Yu Chie Lai and Tung Tsung Hung.
Teresita Nazareno, aunt of casino dealer Marylle Gwen Ala, said that she and other family members had been waiting since Friday afternoon to receive their loved ones. The body was released only after they angrily demanded Marylle be turned over to them.
“We were waiting the whole day yesterday, but they told us to go home and just return the next day,” Nazareno said. “We thought they were going to release her at 1 p.m., but it’s already almost 6 p.m. and we were still waiting.”
Gina Alvarez, a spokesperson for Resorts World, said many were trapped because they hid in the hotel’s pantry when they heard gunshots being fired. “They heard the gunshots but didn’t know if there were still fighting outside so they did not leave the area,” she said.
She said the gunman had also left a bag full of ammunition on the baccarat tables that he subsequently set on fire, triggering explosions that might have scared the patrons and staff from coming out and escaping.
There were more than 12,100 people at the casino complex at the time, and when the gunmen attacked there was panic. He used gasoline to set gambling tables on fire, creating clouds of smoke that swept through the panicked crowds. —WITH A REPORT FROM AP
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