Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 14) — Lives could have been saved if hotel personnel were able to monitor security camera footage of victims trapped in a pantry of Resorts World Manila (RWM) over a week ago.
This observation came from lawmakers as the House of Representatives resumed on Tuesday its probe of the June 2 attack on RWM, a luxury hotel and casino in Pasay City.
Twenty people took refuge in the pantry at 12:13 a.m. as they heard gunshots and explosions, CCTV videos showed.
The pantry was just across the casino area, where lone gunman Jessie Carlos was seen firing warning shots and setting gaming tables on fire, placing a bag of bullets on top of one. The fire caused the bullets to go off even after Carlos had left the area.
There were two fire exits just meters away, but authorities said the victims were probably too afraid to come out due to the gun shots, thinking the suspect might still be in the gaming area.
READ: WATCH: CCTV footage shows gunman during Resorts World incident
Nine others hid inside a bathroom were there was no security camera, officials said.
Rescue came around eight hours later, but it was too late for majority of the victims. It takes only four to five minutes for a person to die of suffocation, the Bureau of Fire Protection said.
RWM President Kingson Sian said their security found a survivor at 7:50 a.m., who had crawled his way out of the pantry through a narrow opening.
It was only then that authorities focused retrieval operations on the pantry and the bathroom.
READ: PAGCOR suspends license of Resorts World Manila
They finished retrieving bodies at around 3 p.m., revealing that 38 people were killed in the incident, including the gunman who allegedly burned himself the death. His charred remains were previously found inside a room around 6:30 a.m.
Lawmakers scored hotel management for its failure to monitor the CCTV where the trapped people could be seen.
“There was a lapse in monitoring that particular camera which was crucial in the survival of the people trapped there,” House Deputy Speaker Gwen Garcia said.
Sian admitted they were not monitoring that CCTV because “there were so many cameras in the property.”
RWM management submitted to the House four hard disks containing footage from 409 surveillance cameras that recorded the events in the establishment from 8:00 p.m. on June 1 to 12 nn of June 2. They said it will take them more than a month to submit the rest of the videos requested by the lawmakers, or footage from May 31 to June 3.
CCTV abandoned?
All eyes were on the suspect, RWM Chief Operating Officer Stephen Reilly said.
“At no time were all the surveillance rooms abandoned. The secondary surveillance room at the Remington Hotel was manned 24/7. We had eyes on the suspect all the time,” Reilley said.
He was responding to claims the police failed to determine the exact location of the suspect during the attack because a CCTV room was abandoned.
“Iniwan po nila yung mga CCTV room nila doon kasi malakas na daw po ang usok (They left the CCTV room because of the thick smoke),” Philippine National Police Chief Ronald Dela Rosa said. He said they were later offered to monitor the suspect’s activities through a CCTV at Remington Hotel inside the posh entertainment complex.
READ: PNP orders relief of Resorts World security guards
The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, the country’s gaming regulator, has suspended the provisional license of Resorts World Manila pending an investigation into alleged security lapses of the hotel complex.
The Philippine National Police unit supervising private security groups had also ordered the relief of security guards on duty during the attack.
CNN Philippines’ Joyce Ilas contributed to this report.
