Duterte visits wake of Resorts World attack victims

First published: 2:17 a.m., June 4, 2017

President Rodrigo Duterte visited on Saturday night the wake of the victims of the attack at Resorts World Manila in Pasay City.

Duterte arrived at 11:10 p.m. at the Veronica Memorial Chapel, where the remains of nine victims lie.

He visited the wake of the Taiwanese victims – Hing Tung Tsung, Lai Wei-Chung, and Lai Yu-Chieh – and a Filipino, Carmelita de la Cruz.

The representative of Taiwan to the Philippines, Gary Song-Huann Lin, was at also at Veronica Memorial to meet with the families of his deceased compatriots and with the President.

Catalino Cuy, officer in charge of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, said Duterte asked the relatives of the victims to let him know how the government could be of assistance.

According to Cuy, the families of the Taiwanese victims were planning to have them cremated and would like to bring them back to Taiwan on Monday.

The government would be helping them process the necessary papers, such as the death certificates, for the transport of the remains, he said.

The Taiwanese thanked the Philippine government for its help, he added.

The body of the still-unidentified assailant was also taken to the Veronica Memorial Chapel, according to the Pasay City Social Welfare and Development. But nobody has claimed the body.

The President also visited the the wake of Eleuterio Reyes, husband of former actress Azenith Briones, at the nearby Rizal Funeral Homes.

The chief executive then proceeded to Heritage Park in Taguig to visit the wake of Elizabeth Panlilio Gonzales, the wife of Pampanga Rep. Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales Jr.

Meanwhile, Cuy said Duterte had sseen the closed circuit TV footage of the Resorts World attacker and believed the incident was the work of a disturbed person.

“I think he was convinced that the one who is involved here is a deranged man based on what he saw in the video,” Cuy said.

Earlier, in a speech in Cagayan de Oro, before he flew to Manila, Duterte said the attack was the work of a “crazy man” and not the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

“It’s not ISIS,” he said in a news briefing at Camp Evangelista after he visited wounded soldiers who fought terrorists in war-torn Marawi City.

“That is not the work of ISIS,” he added. “The work of the ISIS is more cruel and brutal. They would simply kill people for nothing, not even for a reason.” /atm

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