Ang Kape Ni LaTtEX

One of the most valuable things that I learned during my Ang Pahayagang Plaridel days is that there are more than two sides to a story. Most of the time, if you’re only aware of two sides, you still haven’t delved deep enough into the story to have an objective “take” at it. While in fiction we’ve grown up thinking that there are only two sides — black and white, good and evil, truth and lies, protagonists and antagonists — real life has so many grey areas and many times, the gist, or the lessons, of these stories in life often lurk in those grey areas.

The Wowowee stampede is one of those incidents that has such a wide spectrum of grey in it, and I believe that to be able to prevent such a thing from ever happening again, it’s only fitting not only to look on those grey areas, but also to instrospect on our way of life, our culture, and what we have become as a people.

And I’m sure many will be angered by some of the things that I am about to say.

Mudslinging and Finger Pointing

The usual course of action that people take when a calamity or disaster occurs would be to look for someone to blame. In last Saturday’s stampede, ABS-CBN became the primary target, its management questioned for promoting a culture of mendicancy and its security arm accused of negligence in setting up proper security measures. In the press conference held by ABS-CBN on the night of the stampede, reporters of rival network GMA even went as far as insinuating that ABS-CBN guards hit some people from the crowd with batons. GMA news reports on TV were also playing the phrase “pagbabalitang wasto at walang kinikilingan” so often that it was practically implying that someone else was doing biased reporting.

Similarly, oppositionists and spin doctors have taken the opportunity to lay blame on the government, stating that the tragedy “belies the administration’s claim that the economy is in good shape” . They reiterated that these people were so desperate and in such dire need that they have waited for days in the hopes of being able to watch, and perhaps join in the contests of the show.

The mudslinging and fingerpointing was so sickening and blatant. Not only politicians who are adept at those skills but also a rival network took — or at least tried to take — advantage of the incident to malign their respective enemies.

The Dynamics of Falling in Line in the Filipino Culture

One thing that I noticed immediately, however, is that majority of the casualties of the Wowowee stampede were elderly women. Out of the 75 confirmed dead, only 3 were male. The rest were female, and the majority was beyond retiring age. While it would’ve made sense — elderly women would’ve been more prone to injury and less able to fight off the crush — I asked myself why there were few if any elderly men who died. And then, as if in a vision, it suddenly came upon me at communion time in mass last Sunday. The first to come off their pews were elderly women, and they come walking fast towards the head of the communion lines, many times cutting into the line especially if males were ahead of them.

I wonder if the same dynamics were at play at the Wowowee crowd? Well, it might have been. I couldn’t really tell since I wasn’t there, could I?

On the other hand some “educated” people are quick to speculate that the unruliness of the crowd comes out of the fact that they were mostly comprised of “uneducated squatters.” Now I know that this is very far from the truth. I see this behavior from members of the middle class in the MRT everyday. During the evening rush hour, as soon as the train stops at the Taft Station in Pasay Rotonda, some people push into the train even as everyone has yet to get out. The concerns of many of them (especially… oops… elderly women) are to be able to seat themselves comfortably in the train that will be heavily packed by the time it leaves Ayala, three stations down the line.

A few years ago, alighting at the Buendia MRT Station, I had to wrestle my way through the group of people who were forcing their way into the train even as I was going out. I wanted to punch everyone’s noses in frustration at the time. More recently, a young woman cut the line at the exact change ticket booth of the Shaw Boulevard MRT Station. While I relentlessly taunted her “singit!” and “miss matuto ka namang pumila!”, she pretended not to hear me.

Outside of the MRT, there was one time when I lined up at the Banco De Oro Edsa-Taft Branch on the first day of the month. As expected, the lines towards the tellers were long. But what irked many of us who were lined up was when the guy ahead of me came to the teller counter, two other women, obviously employees out on an errand, came forward to the counter. There, the two women filled up their forms, for what seemed like three transactions each. Almost everyone behind the guy, myself included, groaned while the biatches were doing their thing, not only because they cut the line, but also because they had all the time to fill up those forms while waiting for their pointman to reach the counter.

The “squatter attitude” argument falls apart when we take note that even educated white-collar workers who frequently ride the MRT or transact in banks exhibit the same kind of behaviour. The behaviour of lacking a sense of orderliness or respect for other people who know how to fall in line is absent even in many supposedly educated middle class.

Aversion to Order?

I have often wondered what is it in Filipino culture that makes it seem that we are a people averse to orderliness. Why is it that a very simple concept such as falling in line, is quite difficult many to stomach? Why did people have to die because of this aversion to order?

Well, I have a speculation.

My speculation has something to do with our society’s acute inferiority complex. Filipinos have suffered from a sense of self-pity for so long. We always think negatively of ourselves and our country, we always take on a victim mentality when tragedy besets us. This prompts us to always self-criticize to the point of depression: this is what happens when we constantly rant “ang mga Pilipino kasi (insert self-criticism here)!”. On the other hand, whenever we do things that are considered illegal, improper, or immoral, we invoke that sense of self-pity: “pagbigyan niyo na lang ako kasi kawawa naman ako.”

The second case is what I wish to point out. I mean, why do you think those tricycle or jeepney drivers vehemently violate traffic violations? Because they think that they are entitled to violating those rules, since it is a perceived necessity to be able to do their work. How do you think public servants like politicians and police justify taking bribes? Because they say that they have very measely pay, and they need the bribes to make ends meet.

Why do you think people were willing to hurt and trample on others to enter the Ultra and be able to watch Wowowee? Why do you think that many of the people who were able to enter Ultra or were still lined up after the stampede wanted the show to go on, hoping against hope, considering that over 70 people had just died? Think about it.

A Question of Values and Critical Thinking

While many people would want to blame poverty or hunger or desperation or “the real state of the economy” to why people lined up to watch Wowowee, my thinking is far simpler than that. So simple, that the explanation is contained in two words: easy money. The same laws which make people line up to bet on Lotto even if the chances of winning it were slimmer than the chances that you drop dead right at this moment (pardon the insensitive pun) are the same laws that made 25,000 people line up for Wowowee.

And I don’t think you could attribute the want for easy money to any degree of desperation or need. Come to think of it; whenever a person receives big money, do you spend all of it on needs? Of course not; in fact, many times people would prefer to spend it on wants that they could otherwise be unable to afford with their incomes (irregular or otherwise). This same principle applies as to why we go on gimmicks and shopping sprees after payday. This same principle applies to lottery winners who end up poorer than they were before they won millions. This same principle is what made Manny Pacquiao buy large houses and SUVs instead of investing on long-term business, the exception of which might be a small convenience store his wife Jinky set up for him.

Another accusation thrown against ABS-CBN was that the people in the crowd lining up for Wowowee were treated like animals. I don’t think that argument holds, neither do I think that those people were like cattle that have to be ‘herded’ or something. They were there on their own accord. Many actively refused to leave after others have already died.

I think that the fact that ABS-CBN took advantage of their inability to think critically and sensitively is just one side of the coin. I think it’s time for people, and that includes most of us Filipinos, to stop blaming others for our own misery and start taking reponsibility for our own actions.

Beyond Lining Up at Wowowee

Indeed, there are so many aspects of capitalist entertainment, economics, culture, and values; so many grey areas that came into play, that we must look into so as to fully comprehend why people had to die at the Wowowee First Anniversary celebration. And they don’t only affect those who had lined up on that fateful morning: it affects each and everyone of us who need to earn and make a living.

It certainly affects each and everyone of us who have to line up to go or do work everyday.