This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VI, No. 2, February 12-18, 2006
Streetwise
By Carol
Pagaduan-Araullo © 2006 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
Culpability
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