Alchie Paray, the disgruntled former Greenhills Shopping Center security guard who held hostage at least 50 people earlier this week, debunked rumors swirling online that San Juan City police planted drugs on him during his arrest.
In a video provided by the Eastern Police District to The Philippine Daily Inquirer today, Paray said the cops just handcuffed him during his arrest.
“For me, I will say that that is not true,” he said in Filipino. “People might have misinterpreted what happened. But the truth is, they just handcuffed me.”
Read: Greenhills management looking into arrested hostage-taker’s corruption allegations
“The cases filed against me were the truth, nothing more, nothing less. I don’t have a case of illegal possession of illegal drugs. Nothing.”
Paray sparked a nine-hour standoff when he stormed inside the mall, shot a security guard, and took dozens of people hostage in an office. The crisis reached a climax when Paray was allowed to give a “press conference” in which he alleged that some security officials solicited bribes from the mall’s tenants in exchange for highly-coveted spots inside the property.
Paray, who was fired as a guard for abandoning his work for two weeks, also alleged that his colleagues were getting fired arbitrarily and that he was reassigned after a tenant whom he had fought with allegedly bribed his superiors. During the standoff, Paray rejected a PHP1 million offer from his former security agency to free his hostages, saying he preferred to air all of his grievances against his employers instead, ABS-CBN News reports.
He finally surrendered after almost 10 hours of negotiations, and the mall’s management promised to look into his accusations.
Rappler reports that San Juan City police today filed several charges against Paray: attempted murder, illegal detention, illegal possession of explosives, illegal possession of firearms, and illegal possession of a bladed weapon. He remains in detention at the San Juan City police station.
Meanwhile, San Juan Mayor Francis Zamora said he will call for changes to the mall’s security protocols.
“I’m meeting the top management of the Greenhills Shopping Center. I will demand from them a total overhaul of the security systems of the Greenhills Shopping Center,” Zamora said in a presser yesterday.
“This is not just about the mall’s security. This is about the security of the city of San Juan, that’s why I will get involved and make sure all of them [security officials] are removed.”
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