On the 6th day without any trace of the missing person who resides in Barangay Sta. Lourdes, just a little on the northern part of the last frontier of the Philippines, lies the allegations and assumptions of its community. Some based the recent happening of her disappearance on the urban legend of the red pigment mall who was reported to have had a half snake-half human entity that steals fair-skinned or gorgeous women, bringing them underneath the structure of the mall. Funny as it seems, the urban legend was believed by many for a couple of decades now, brought about by the experience of a then thriving young actress taking her flight to move out of the Philippines, coupled with some hearsays that the family of the said mall paid her to zip her mouth about the issue. Yesterday, Wednesday, August 10, Robinsons Place Palawan finally coordinated with the local police authorities and submitted a short clip of the CCTV footage of the day of Jovelyn Galleno’s disappearance, and have only allowed one [1] person to view the said clip–only the investigator of the case.
Despite the assumption of many that had the mall cooperated by sending out the CCTV footage of that day to the concerned authorities, then the case would have been solved by now. However, it brought agitation and hatred to the said establishment when they only released the video clip for which it shows 9:09 AM on the clock of the same day, showing the entry of the missing woman, but never a sight about when she concluded the day to go home to their residence. Furthermore, the mall reasoned out that they could not provide further clips due to the destruction of their CCTV cameras, reasoning about the continuous unpredictable blackouts in the city.
But if one would think thoroughly, there are several lapses in the reasons that they have laid out: 1) During the day of Galliano’s disappearance, there was no known blackout that happened inside the city, but if they will reason out that the said destruction of the CCTV cameras has existed before “that” day, wouldn’t it make them more liable because that will only mean that they do are not doing an immediate response to the needs of their establishment that caters almost the majority of the population of the province? 2) Reasoning that the CCTV cameras have failed to work due to unforeseeable blackouts by the electricity provider of the city, failing for them to secure a copy of the clips–as far as one could remember, a mall only takes a few seconds to connect to their generator whenever blackouts happen. In this instance, Robinsons Place Palawan would only have 5-10 seconds of dull silence in the clips or may have paused its recording due to the power outage, but as the electricity flows back from the supply of the generator, this will also resume the service of the camera. Hence, regardless of blackouts, the management of the said mall would still be able to view their saved clips; and 3) With the absence of such CCTV cameras for the safety of their consumers and employees, this would only mean a fair judgment–to review their business permit, for they are now a qualified candidate for closure due to their negligence.
However, a CCTV footage of one of the stores in the said mall claimed to have seen the said missing person around 7 in the evening, and if one may infer, it would be impossible for the management to not see her, given that she could be easily distinguished on the clips for the yellow top that she was wearing that night. To sum it up and to look into more about it, where could she be?
This begs the public to think that these corporate shills may surely be just concerned about how their pockets will be full of their consumer’s money. With their absence to cooperate in a big case of a missing person, like this, this will only mean that the public may tend to back down from their services, regardless of how much discount they may lure everyone to. A few days back, when the public are clamoring their management to release a statement or a CCTV clip back from the day when one of their employers went missing, it heated the conversation among netizens when they posted some of their publication materials, showing a whopping 25-50% discount on almost, if not, all of their items–this includes clothing, luxury items, beauty and regimen products, and even food.
But if we are to compare these corporate stunts to the way Galleno’s family feels, for almost a week without a glimpse of their daughter, sister, cousin, niece, or granddaughter, no amount of discount or flaunting of wealth can ever take this away. With such a disappearance that has brought wonders and fear to many in a once safe province, her name will forever mark the memories of many. For a grieving and fearful mother who has been praying nonstop, uttering a word to the heavens for the safety and sight of her daughter, publicity can never wash away the guessing that the news headline of tomorrow may show the monstrosity of what has happened to her.
How could this missing person case be solved by the authorities if the said company she works for won’t do anything to help?
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