The way the Resorts World assault unfolded over the weekend has caused deep anxiety and grief not just for the loved ones of the victims, but for the general public, as well.
A few hours after shots were heard at the casino, the Agence France-Presse reported that according to SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that monitors the online activity of terrorists, a Filipino operative of Islamic States in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was claiming responsibility for the attack. Foreign news agencies, including CNN and Al Jazeera, quickly picked up the story, enabling it to reach the social-media feeds of Filipinos across the world.
Immediately, authorities downplayed the claim, saying that they were pursuing the angle of a robbery perpetrated by a deranged lone gunman.
Over the weekend, closed-circuit television footage was released showing indeed that a single gunman walked past security and into the casino floor, fired shots into the air to cause panic, set ablaze tables, stole chips worth millions of pesos and engaged in a shootout with security.
Later, the gunman on the video was revealed to be a former employee of the Department of Finance, who had racked up millions of pesos in debt due to a gambling problem. Not only did the gunman frequent casinos, he was also found to be an impulsive sabungero, who in one instance lost up to P1 million in a single evening. So severe was his addiction that Resorts World banned him from entering in April.
Despite these details, several questions remain unanswered, leaving the victims’ families and the general public all the more anxious. At first, the police said they neutralized the threat in a shootout. However, the media later reported that the murderer killed himself in a hotel guest room by immolation. Why the seemingly ritualistic suicide? He could have simply shot himself.
While the police’s claim of a lone gunman perpetrating the incident has been bolstered by the release of his identity and background, eyewitness reports however claimed that several masked men were responsible for the attack. What explains the difference in reporting? By virtually saying the case has already been solved, the police appear to be closing the door into further inquiries into the gunman’s identity, his associate and contacts, even network.
Contrast this with how the UK Police handled the Manchester concert bombing, as they painstakingly unearthed personal details of the lone suicide bomber and exposed the terror network the bomber was affiliated with. That patient and dogged work of the UK Police, who did not give media interviews while doing their task, is an example our own should emulate.
Otherwise, the Resorts World incident will suffer the same fates as the murky account of the killing of the Leyte drug lord inside prison and of the Korean businessman inside the Philippine National Police’s headquarters in Camp Crame.
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