|
Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to
search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts
Vol. VI, No. 2
February 12 - 18, 2006 Quezon City, Philippines |
|
HOME
ARCHIVE
CONTACT
RESOURCES
ABOUT BULATLAT
www.bulatlat.com
www.bulatlat.net
www.bulatlat.org
|
READER FEEDBACK
(We encourage readers to dialogue with us.
Email us
your letters complaints, corrections, clarifications, etc.)
|
|
|
DEMOCRATIC SPACE
(Email us your
letters statements, press releases, manifestos, etc.) |
|
|
For
turning the screws on hot issues, Bulatlat has been awarded
the Golden Tornillo Award.
Iskandalo
Cafe
|
|
Copyright 2004 Bulatlat bulatlat@gmail.com |
|
|
|
|
Streetwise
Culpability
By Carol
Pagaduan-Araullo
BusinessWorld
Posted by Bulatlat
One thing that is striking about the stampede at the Ultra stadium that
killed scores of poor people seeking to win prizes at a television game
show is how quickly the government of Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is
being called to account for the tragedy. It is a testament to the Arroyo
regimes continuing alienation from the people and its growing political
isolation from even the smaller and better-off sections of the population.
No matter that the giant TV network, ABS-CBN, is the most directly
culpable being the organizer of the Wowowee extravaganza whose popularity
the network used to the hilt to outdo its rival noontime show at GMA 7.
(In fact many TV viewers were turned off at the apparent effort of ABS-CBN
to use their show biz talents to soften the impact of the disaster,
trumpet the efforts of management to assist the victims and parry the
accusations of criminal negligence against it.)
If anyone wants to look for responsibility on the part of public
authorities, one should logically look immediately to the local government
of Pasig where the Ultra is located as well as Metro Manila police
officials who appear to have been sleeping on the job even as the crowds
started to swell into an unmanageable size. (It did not escape the
attention of the discerning public that both the city mayor and police
chief in the national capital region were members of the government Task
Force tasked to investigate the disaster even as they both needed to be
investigated for their probable sins of omission relating to the
stampede.)
It boggles the mind of the struggling but otherwise still fairly
comfortable middle class and the elite with their self-indulgent
lifestyles how and why the horde of Wowowee fans withstood the punishment
of queuing up for 2 to 3 days or more outside the Ultra.
They were exposed to the elements, packed like sardines and were without
toilet facilities. They were constantly edgy at the thought of not
getting the chance to join the raffle promo but desperately hopeful
nonetheless for a chance to hit the jackpot.
The answer stares all of us in the face once more poverty the extreme,
grinding kind. This coupled with the aching desire of millions to escape
it by means of a magical raffle ticket because no decent jobs are
available. Or, more realistically, the poor taking the gamble, for a
chance to have a few thousand pesos that can pay mounting debts, get
medical attention for a sick family member, buy the children some food and
clothing or fill some such mundane, everyday need that some of us take for
granted.
It is therefore not surprising how the preventable disaster of the Ultra
stampede has quickly slammed into the Arroyo administrations face
especially with it crowing about the phenomenal peso appreciation and the
2005 growth figures that indicate a surprisingly resilient economy that is
allegedly poised for take-off.
Most people put the blame squarely on the Arroyo regime for the
intolerable depths of poverty and misery that millions of our countrymen
have descended to in the past five years.
Most people have also lost all hope that this government can lead the
country out of its socio-economic rut when the legitimacy and moral
integrity of the Arroyo presidency are under serious doubt and the regimes
political viability is constantly being challenged by a broad, if
disparate, array of oppositional forces who want her out.
The fragility of the Arroyo regime is betrayed by recent events. The much
more critical pastoral statement of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the
Philippines (CBCP) has unhinged Malacañang to the extent that it has
temporarily scuttled the scheme to cancel national elections in 2007 as a
bribe to legislators to support the Arroyo-de Venecia drive to amend the
Constitution and thereby cement Mrs. Arroyos hold on power.
The obvious restlessness in the military and police ranks is causing GMA
and her corrupt generals sleepless nights. So Mrs. Arroyo has promised,
if not yet released, billions of pesos for the AFP and PNP; her media
handlers ensure front-page publication of photos of a smiling
commander-in-chief posing with fighting units of the military to belie
rumors of a brewing mutiny; notorious officers accused of grievous human
rights violations are callously promoted despite the hue and cry from the
victims and local and international human rights advocates.
No, people are not buying the administration line to move on. Even its
drive for charter change -- with amendments that constitute a very real
threat to civil and political liberties, to a revival of Marcosian martial
rule, to the bargaining away of territorial integrity, patrimony, and
national sovereignty and to the prolonged grip on power of the Gloria/Mike
Arroyo-de Venecia-Ramos clique -- are not being taken seriously because
people see it merely as a ploy to distract the people and divert the anti-GMA
movement into puerile debates about presidential vs. parliamentary
systems.
Gone is the bluster, the disdain and the arrogance that GMA personally
displayed, even flaunted, when she felt secure in her hold on power. Once
again she tries to morph her aloof image into that of a leader whose heart
bleeds for the poor and oppressed. She visits those hurt at the Ultra in
the hospital, inaugurates supposedly pro-poor projects left and right and
is the sweet and kindly school marm guiding impressionable young minds to
enlightenment. But all these tired publicity gimmicks have little effect
in covering up the crisis of leadership that just won’t go away.
Meanwhile those working for regime change through democratic means whether
constitutional or extra constitutional are slowly but surely, and in an
accelerated fashion, coming together for this governments day of reckoning
in the not too distant future. Posted by Bulatlat
BACK TO
TOP ■
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION ■
COMMENT
© 2006 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications
Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided
its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
|
|
|
|