Members of the House of Representatives attending the investigation on Wednesday on the Resorts World Manila (RWM) attack are taking turns seeking answers on how the incident blew out of proportion and resulted in the death of 37 persons.
There is conflict on whether or not the personnel manning the Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) control rooms of RWM abandoned their posts, so that even when police had reached these rooms and saw the assailant Jessie Carlos’ movement through the TV monitors, the cops still could not pinpoint his exact location inside the hotel-casino.
Philippine National Police-National Capital Region (PNP-NCR) Director Oscar Albayalde said, “I personally asked for CCTV rooms. The answer I was given was mausok yung CCTV rooms. Di na pwedeng pasukin at wala ng tao doon (The answer I was given was that smoke had engulfed the CCTV rooms. No one can enter the room and there was no person there anymore).
Pasay PNP Chief Dionisio Bartolome recalled, “as we were checking room by room, we chanced upon a CCTV room. Walang tao (no one was inside).”
But RWM Chief Operating Officer Stephen Reilly insisted, “at no time did we have all three surveillance rooms unoccupied.”
“At no time were all the surveillance rooms abandoned. We had eyes on the suspect all the time,” Reilly claimed.
A RWM employee said the hotel-casino has 28 CCTV operators.
