AN armed man who killed 37 people when he set fire to a Resorts World Manila casino was a father of three from Manila motivated by heavy gambling debts and not terrorism, police said Sunday.
The identification of the assailant as Jessie Javier Carlos, a Catholic, proves that claims by the Islamic State group that it was responsible for Friday’s attack were false, Manila police chief Oscar Albayalde told reporters.
“We reiterate that this is not an act of terrorism but this incident is confined to the act of one man alone,” Albayalde said as he sat alongside Carlos’s parents and wife at a press conference held to announce the identity of the attacker.
Albayalde said Carlos was aged 43, had three children and had been banned from all casinos in April by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. following a request from his family because of his gambling addiction.
“He is heavily indebted due to being hooked to casino gambling. This became the cause of misunderstanding with his wife and parents,” Albayalde said.
“He was barred by Pagcor from all casinos because of the request of next of kin. This could have probably triggered him. That’s why he was so mad at casinos.”
Carlos walked into the Resorts World casino and hotel complex in Manila on Friday with an M4 automatic rifle and a bottle of gasoline, before setting alight a number of different rooms in the complex, according to police accounts.
Thirty-seven people died in the fires, dozens more were injured in a stampede to escape, and Carlos was found dead about five hours later in a hotel room after committing suicide by setting fire to himself, police had said.
Security footage of the incident released on Saturday showed the gunman calmly and slowly walking through the casino and firing into the air most of the time, apparently as warning shots for people to leave.
At one point he fired at security guards when they confronted him, but missed. After they ran away, he calmly walked up some stairs.
The video also showed him breaking into a secure room where chips and money were being kept, apparently intent on stealing what he could.
Carlos set alight many gambling tables, which police said was probably an attempt to create a diversion so he could escape.
At Sunday’s press conference, Carlos’s tearful mother said he had been a good man who committed the violence because of his gambling addiction.
“We ask for forgiveness. My son was a good child to us. But since he started playing at the casinos, that’s all he did. He did not visit us. It was painful for us not to see him,” said his mother, Teodora Carlos.
Albayalde said Carlos had worked in the Department of Finance but had been sacked because he had lied on official forms about unexplained assets and properties.
A 2014 government press release explaining the sacking described Carlos as a tax specialist, who had been fired for not declaring properties and for taking mysterious loans far more than a bank would lend.
Authorities had repeatedly insisted on Friday and Saturday the attack was not terrorism-related but a bizarre robbery attempt by a deranged man.
But IS claimed responsibility, with a report on its self-styled Amaq news agency saying its “fighters” carried out the attack.
President Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly warned that IS is gaining a greater foothold in the Philippines.
Those concerns escalated when militants flying black IS flags rampaged through the Philippines’ main Islamic city in the south nearly two weeks ago, triggering clashes that are still continuing and have left roughly 200 people dead.
Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao on May 23 in a bid to quash the rising IS threat, and said he was prepared to impose military rule nationwide if terrorism spread.
However, Duterte and his police chiefs insisted that the casino attack was not terrorism-related.
After identifying Carlos as the attacker on Sunday, Albayalde repeatedly sought to discredit IS.
“We will not allow people or any threat group to use this situation to advance their propaganda or personal causes, whether foreign or local,” Albayalde said.
He also urged the public not to spread false speculation about the incident.
“We ask for people to stop spreading false speculation linking this act to terrorism. Again, as we always maintained, this is not an act of terrorism. Help us build peace here in our region by spreading only the truth,” Albayalde said.
Carlos, whose last known address was in Sta. Cruz, Manila, was separated from his wife, Jen Carlos, with whom he had a son and two daughters.
The gunman’s wife was silent during the press conference, which she did not finish.
Despite revelations about the gunman, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez insisted that the attack Friday was an act of terrorism.
“The ultimate consequence of the attack on Resorts World is an act of terrorism. Let us stick to the definition of terrorism. Anybody who, with premeditation harms and kills people indiscriminately is a terrorist. Whether or not the perpetrator is a member of a known terrorist organization or a lone wolf acting independently, he is a terrorist. This is happening all over the world,” read Alvarez’s statement sent to the media.
“Our authorities should not lull our people into complacency by dismissing the incident as a common criminal act. Neither should they relax just because they refuse to label the incident as such.”
Duterte flew to Manila Saturday night to go to the wake of some of the fatalities in the Resorts World Manila attack.
In Veronica Funeral Homes, Duterte met privately with the bereaved families of four of the victims, Hing Tung Tsung, Lai Wei-Chung, Lai Yu-Chieh and Carmelita dela Cruz.
Around midnight, the President went to the nearby Rizal Funeral Homes, also in Pasay City, to pay his respects to another victim of the incident, Eleuterio Reyes.
He then proceeded to Heritage Park in Taguig to pay his respects to Raoul B. Viray and Elizabeth Gonzales.
Viray was a shipping industry official. Gonzales was the wife of Pampanga Rep. Aurelio Gonzales Jr.
Duterte dispelled speculations that the Resorts World Manila incident was a terror attack.
“That is not the work of the ISIS. The work of the ISIS is more cruel and brutal. They would just simply kill people for nothing. Not even for a reason. And that was the reason why the world today has bonded together to fight the scourge of terrorism,” Duterte said. With Sandy Araneta, Rio N. Araja, Julito G. Rada and PNA
