‘Lax, laxer’: Solons grill casino execs over attack

Executives of Resorts World Manila, along with ranking police officials, face a joint inquiry called by three House committees on Wednesday regarding the June 2 attack on the Pasay City casino.—RICHARD A. REYES

He may have been absent from Wednesday’s hearing, but Pampanga Rep. Aurelio Gonzales Jr., who lost his wife to the Resorts World Manila (RWM) attack, was able to take part in the grilling of the casino hotel’s executives over last week’s tragedy that claimed 37 other lives.

Lending a poignant note to the otherwise heated proceedings, the congressman asked through proxy why no warning was given to the people in the casino, why the fire was not immediately put out, and whether the sprinkler and smoke control systems worked.

“Why did so many die?” Gonzales said through ABS party-list Rep. Eugene Michael de Vera, who read out his questions midway through the joint inquiry called by the House committees on public order and safety, games and amusements, and tourism.

The Pampanga lawmaker’s wife Elizabeth Panlilio Gonzales was among the 37 victims who died after inhaling smoke from fires set off by an armed man who stormed the casino hotel in the early hours of June 2. The gunman, later identified as Jessie Javier Carlos, fired shots in the air, torched gaming tables, took millions of pesos worth of casino chips, before killing himself when engaged in a firefight by responding guards.

In response to Gonzales’ questions, RWM president Kingson Sian said it was not actually the flames but the gunfire that stopped the victims from coming out of hiding and heading for the exits.

Sian pointed out that some 12,100 other guests and employees were able to evacuate.

BMW explosion

“It was very unfortunate there were casualties. What complicated the situation was not actually the fire [and smoke] but the gunfire,” he said. “The normal reaction for people is to run from fire. But in this case, they did not leave the room because of fear.”

Many of the victims, including those who hid in a small pantry, apparently thought there was more than one assailant, he added. Carlos had left a bag of ammunition on a gaming table which he later set ablaze, setting off explosions that gave the impression that there was more than one attacker, Sian said.

To make matters worse, the gas tank of a BMW car on display on the second floor exploded “because of the heat,” he said. “The wheel melted. That produced a lot of toxic fumes.”

Sian answered yes to a series of questions posed by Gonzales on whether Resorts World had complied with fire safety standards, like having working sprinkler and smoke control systems.

Other lawmakers put RWM executives on the spot over security lapses. Among the questions asked: Why did it take so long to find the gunman? Why was there no immediate pursuit? What took the firefighters so long to arrive at the scene?

Leyte Rep. Lucy Torres Gomez, the tourism committee chair, cited a “lack of sense of urgency” in the way security personnel carried out safety protocols. “Did anybody at the time … did you see in the (closed-circuit TV) cameras that there were victims trapped in isolated areas?” she asked.

Sian answered: “We did not see the locations of most of the deceased. We were not able to see because of fumes that clouded the view. Within a certain period of time, the cameras failed.”

Background check

Questions addressed to the head of Resorts World’s safety, security and surveillance office, Armeen Gomez, forced him to admit that he did not finish college at Ateneo de Naga, contrary to what he earlier told the lawmakers.

Gomez appeared ill at ease when queries from Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas and Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop, the public order committee chair, scrutinized his background as a former cadet of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA).

The security official gave contradictory answers when asked what year he left the PMA and where he earned his undergraduate degree from Ateneo de Naga. Reminded of his oath, Gomez said he did not graduate from that school.

At the start of the hearing, Resorts World chief operating officer Stephen James Reilly presented video clips of the gunman’s movements before he committed suicide, including his entry into the casino and his gunfight with security guards.

Several lawmakers were heard laughing as a clip showed one of the armed guards scampering away after locating the gunman inside a room.

Fariñas wondered why there was no attempt to immediately chase the gunman, whose movements apparently went unhampered for hours.

“We are embarrassed, we are in grief, but we are angry… We see lax security, and we see laxer reaction. He was roving around, burning tables for one hour… But no pursuit was done. He kept on burning things,” the House leader said.

On the day of the House hearing, family and friends bury the remains of Hazel Anne Yongco, one of the attack victims, at
Tierra Santa Memorial Park in Valenzuela City. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

Power over casinos

Earlier in the hearing, Fariñas raised the possibility of stripping Philippine Amusements and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) of its regulatory powers over casinos. He said House leaders intended to file a bill to amend or repeal Presidential Decree 1869, or the Pagcor charter.

He noted that Pagcor enjoyed the power to authorize, regulate and license casinos on top of their own gaming operations—and hinted that Congress instead should have the power to grant legislative franchises to casinos.

In an exchange with Pagcor chair Andrea Domingo, the Ilocos Norte representative asked why she had allowed Resorts World to voluntarily suspend its operations without issuing its own cease-and-desist order.

Domingo argued that under the casino’s license, Resorts World had 60 days to explain before Pagcor could take punitive actions. “If there’s martial law, then you have no more due process,” she said. “Under the provisional license, where conditions are there dictated, it provides there that they should be given due process. We have been monitoring this since it happened.”

When Fariñas said Congress would review the license granted by Pagcor to Resorts World, Domingo replied: “We have no objections to that.”

Farinas then snapped: “We don’t care if you have objections or not.”