Gunman took cab to Resorts World, spoke in Tagalog

MANILA, Philippines - National Capital Region Police Office director Chief Supt. Oscar Albayalde yesterday dismissed reports the attack on the Resorts World Manila casino was terror related, saying it was an act of a mentally disturbed man attempting a bizarre solo robbery.

Albayalde said there are new details that could possibly lead to the identity of the gunman.

“He was speaking in Tagalog, straight Tagalog,” he told a press conference.

Albayalde said he gathered this information from the investigators who interviewed the taxi driver who brought the gunman to the RWM complex.

The driver reportedly told investigators that the suspect boarded his taxi somewhere in San Lazaro, Manila.

Police could not ascertain the exact time the taxi left Manila but their estimate said it arrived at the casino at around 11:45 p.m. Thursday.

The driver, whom Albayalde did not identify, did not notice anything unusual in the suspect’s behavior during the entire trip.

“He (taxi driver) told us it was all normal. The suspect conversed with the taxi driver in Tagalog,” Albayalde said.

The suspect requested the driver to set his radio dial to the news. When asked what could be the gunman’s reason, Albayalde replied: “He just wanted to listen to the news.”

Southern Police District director Chief Supt. Tomas Apolinario said they are tracing the route from where the gunman could have hailed the taxicab.

“We now have information where he came from,” he said.

Security officials, however, were more cautious about making a declaration, pointing out the need to identify the gunman first.

“Our men are collecting samples from the scene and also out of the totally burned body of the attacker for identification and profiling purposes,” a senior anti-terror official said.

The official said they are hoping they could still retrieve some prints from the gunman’s burned fingers or thumbs.

“I instructed our people to try to lift, if it is still possible, some prints from the gunman’s thumbs,” he said.

Once the gunman’s identity is established, he said it would be a lot easier to determine whether he was simply staging a robbery or a determined terrorist, the official said.

Anti-terror officials are conducting their own parallel investigation, as they are not ruling out a possible terror attack, staged by a determined fighter to divert government forces fighting the IS-linked militants in Marawi City.

A former anti-terror official said he would not buy the robbery angle as claimed by police.

“It is not hard to imagine this if you are trained in counter-terrorism and sabotage,” he said.

Authorities have not yet identified the gunman whose attack killed 37 people at the Resorts World Manila casino on Friday.

The masked man stormed into the casino and hotel complex in Pasay City with an M4 automatic rifle and a bottle of gasoline, which he used to set fire to gaming tables in one of the main casino rooms.   – Emmanuel Tupas, AFP