Learning lessons from the RWM incident

I woke up early Friday morning seeing another breaking news that the Resorts World Manila (RWM) was under attack and burned. Then I saw US Pres. Donald Trump making that premature announcement on CNN about the terrorist incident at the RWM. Obviously at that time, even police authorities in Manila still did not know that the Resorts World attack was not an ISIS inspired terror attack. CNN obviously wanted to embarrass the US President for his premature report of what was happening in Manila.

On Saturday afternoon, ANC came up with the video footage of the incident inside the casino. I personally laud RWM COO Stephen Reilly for his transparency and holding press conferences and their care for the victims of this crime. However that video footage released on ANC made a lot of us sound like armchair security analysts.

My take on that video is the gunman who was identified last Sunday noon as 42-year-old Jessie Javier Carlos was able to enter the security door with his firearm and liters of gasoline and the security guard could not stop him despite the fact that he had no accomplices. But as the hotel video showed, as Jessie Carlos was climbing up the stairs, it was obvious that he was already wounded, as reported by Mr. Reilly that RWM security team had shot and wounded him. This was also shown on RWM video.

If there was one major concern about the security of hotels and casinos all over the country, it was a report that just a week ago security agencies, including that of RWM were asked to turn over their high-powered firearms to the Philippine National Police (PNP). Having high-powered firearms was apparently revoked by Chief Supt. Jose Mario Espino, head of the PNP’s Supervisory Office for Security and Investigation Agencies (PNP-SOSIA).  Call it bad timing if you will. But I would like to believe that if the security within the RWM had high-powered firearms, they could have neutralized Jessie Carlos before he could have done further damage.

What is crystal clear to me is the need to look into the RWM incident and learn lessons from it. During one of his first press conferences, Mr. Reilly said that the security inside the casino game rooms are not armed and only those outside the building are armed. If only the security personnel in charged of the numerous video screens (remember the people behind those security cameras are even trained to spot card sharks) they could have sent their armed security people and the responding SWAT Team to follow Jessie Carlos from floor to floor. Alas, this was a major security lapse!

Looking at the video footage, when Jessie Carlos poured gasoline on the gaming tables and the slot machines, most of the players inside had already fled. So why did 13 employees and 22 guests perish? Surely these people had time to run away from that lone gunman? I can understand why no less than Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte questioned why these people died? Where there no exits? Or where they scared that ISIS terrorists were also outside the hotel? This is something that RWM management should also look into their security procedures.

I also salute Mr. Reilly for his announcement that his company would give the families of each victim P1 million. In most cases, the families of the victims would demand some kind of indemnification. But Mr. Reilly did what he felt he needed to do.

What happened over the weekend had many people especially in social media believing that it was an act of terrorism. Worse, because of the ISIS inspired attack by the Maute Group in Marawi City, some people believed that the attack on the Resorts World was some kind of diversionary attack. What is clear is that people who hate Pres. Duterte wanted to sell the idea that this attack was inspired by the Duterte government so Pres. Duterte could declare Martial Law all over the nation.

Even Rappler reported this incident to be ISIS simply because ISIS admitted that this attack was their doing. I would like to know if Maria Ressa or her reporters are now the PR people for ISIS? Such unverified report should have never made the headlines of mainstream news… even if Rappler is part of the social media because they sound more alarmists! Media outlets should verify any reports like this admission by ISIS before publishing this to the world. We call it shabby journalism!

Finally, allow me to salute two more people, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla and National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Chief Director Oscar Albayalde for their handling of the many press conferences during the Marawi crisis and the RWM incident. They not only spoke perfect English, they took all questions thrown at them with aplomb. Their cool approach and transparency were very assuring to those who were watching their news conference on live TV.

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