From the Wowowee tragedy at Ultra to the Cabinet ‘shock’ and question mark

There will be finger-pointing like nobody’s business over the stampede that brought tragedy to the run-up to the popular "WOWOWEE" show – which was supposed to have been aired by ABS-CBN yesterday afternoon. As the newspaper and radio-TV reports have already said, scores of thousands were pushing to get into the Multipurpose Arena (capacity 17,000 persons) where the "show" was to be aired.

Thousands, we heard, had been encamped around the Arena in ULTRA, Pasig, for as long as two days in order to be the first in line for a spectacular which included a raffle giving away house and lots, jeepneys, taxicabs, and other big bonanzas. At about 6 a.m. yesterday, a stampede erupted – in the crush 79 persons died, 60 of the victims women, the rest children, with a few male victims. More may yet die among the 200 badly injured.

Did some prankster or mischief-maker shout: "Bomba!" to trigger off the pandemonium? The investigation goes on. It was a tragedy. When so many are pushing and shoving, desperate to shoehorn themselves into a limited space, violence was bound to happen – and this is precisely what occurred in that terrible crush.

Could the crowd have been better controlled? Could more stringent safety measures have been taken? Could the event have been better arranged in another venue? The debate, and recriminations, may rage till kingdom come.

Will there be a "resolution" of the tragedy, aside from helping the injured and burying the dead? Remember the Ozone Disco conflagration. Who got called to book? Did the punishment fit the "crime"?

It’s easy to be wise after an awful event. Kibitzers and critics there will always be. The sponsors and the authorities will pledge to do better next time. We pray for the living, and mourn the fallen. We collectively vow that there must be no next time. There will be, I fear – a next time.

It would sound like a sanctimonious sermon – in a land of too many sermons – to say that this ought to be a wake-up call for us to be more careful and safety-conscious the next time around. Which, if the "Wowowee" is to be held, belatedly, tomorrow (Monday) is in a few hours.

One nagging question is why so many scores of thousands flock to such an event or extravaganza? To feel "part" of it – no matter what hardships may be encountered? To catch a glimpse of the celebrities? To alleviate the boredom of their lives? To fulfill their star-struck complex? To win one of those delicious prizes – including a roof over the head, or a taxicab with which to earn a living? Yet, isn’t it true, they could have participated through text or the Internet?

When this writer was a board member of the Safety Council of the Philippines (SCOP), the association had a motto: "Accidents don’t happen – they are caused."

Finding the "cause" of yesterday’s "accident" will be a heck of an effort, with so many so desperately back-pedaling and alibi-grabbing along the way.

* * *

The strange thing is that all night Friday up to midnight, it was all over CNN, the BBC, and our local networks that an Egyptian passenger ferry, the 35-year old "Al-Salaam Boccacio" with more than 1,300 passengers on board, had sunk mysteriously in the Red Sea enroute from Dubah, Saudi Arabia, to Safaga, Egypt, a distance of only about 190 km. from the port of embarkation. The ship left Dubah just before 7 p.m. and, in the dead of night, disappeared from the radar screens.

What went wrong was puzzled over for hours by the Egyptian Maritime authorities, rescue teams, and the TV networks – there had never even been an SOS call – the vessel had sunk in deafening silence. After daybreak, only a few dozen were pulled alive from the water, and scores of bodies – but still no verdict. What fate had befallen most of the passengers aboard that overcrowded vessel? It had been a roll-on-roll-off ship, with the capability of taking in cars and bigger vehicles via seadoors which opened and closed at its stern. Like the "Baltic Star" tragedy in the Baltic Sea many years ago – had these doors burst open and the sea come pouring in?

One remembers our own sea tragedy, that of the MV Doña Paz of Sulpicio Lines. That vessel, in calm seas (in contrast to Friday night’s heaving Red Sea), sank, with how many? I write from my faulty memory, but over 4,300 were lost – including my barber Pol and his two sons, who had, ironically, gone "home" to their native Iloilo to attend his father’s funeral! The Doña Paz sits on the bottom of Sibuyan sea, not far from the sunken Japanese battleship the Mushashi (the giant sister ship of Japan’s pride of the fleet , the battleship Yamato . . . which in turn was sunk by 300 American aircraft off Okinawa). There must be a lot of angry ghosts in that channel.

But I digress. If you’ll recall, the Red Sea, which laps the shores of Egypt, Jordan (in the Gulf of Aqaba), Israel (Eilat), Yemen and Saudi Arabia, is the sea parted by Almighty God at the plea of the Prophet Moses to enable the Israelites in The Exodus to flee from Egypt and trudge, on the suddenly dry sea bottom, to safety in the Holy Land.

When the Pharaoh and his war chariots plunged into the breach in hot pursuit, the Red Sea’s waters came rushing back to drown the pursuing ruler and his men.

The Bible story gives the Red Sea – which was, of course, a dark blue the last time I saw it decades ago – its continuing aura of romance and tragedy.

* * *

Think of poor timing! With the police and the Department of Interior and Local Government enmeshed in the task of restoring order, cleaning up yesterday’s mess at ULTRA, and trying to work out how to prevent future stampedes and other crowd disturbances from occurring, La Presidenta announced the transfer of DILG Secretary Angelo T. Reyes to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

The Palace announced a number of other Cabinet changes and the appointment of other worthy individuals, but it was the DILG vacancy so suddenly created that intrigues everyone.

Immediately, perhaps on cue, the rumor mills began pumping overtime that Antipolo Congressman Ronnie Puno, the hotel "king" of yesteryear – Sulo and Byron variety? – might be taking over, as he desires, the strategic Department of Interior and Local Government. Not only does this ministry control the police, but with elections coming in 2007, the Local Governments’ supervisory role played by DILG chief comes into sharp focus.

Alikabok, from the bowels of Malacañang, tells me a strange story. It will be Puno, Sanamagan, who will be named DILG Secretary. But the alleged scenario – would you believe, is that it will only be "temporary". Congressman Puno will not take his "oath", my source said. He will be in place, reportedly, only to push what they call the "people’s initiative".

How this kind of quick shuffle will be implemented is beyond my comprehension. But that’s supposed to be the plan.