Above All... T'was a Tragedy.

I woke up this afternoon [yeah, i overslept, again!] to the voice of Manang Inday, our laundry woman. She was getting the dirty clothes from my room when my half-awake mind overheard her saying something like, "Manood ka ng TV 'nice, kedaming namatay sa ULTRA..." I was so startled by the word NAMATAY that I instinctively got out of bed and turned my TV on.

I all of a sudden remembered that my brother left this morning and I had no idea where he's headed. For a split second I felt fear. He goes to ULTRA once in a while because of his sport and since i'm pretty much out of the "loop", I didn't know that the event in ULTRA's Wowowee's First Anniversary. I felt relief when my sister said, "Ate, Wowowee un sa ULTRA, sa tingin mo ba pupunta dun si Kuya?"

I couldn't help but feel bad not only for the victims but also for the production staff of the show. I tried to find out why the stampede happened and there were a lot of hearsays, one of which was that someone from the crowd shouted "bomb!" thus startling the already agitated crowd. But as of the moment, all that the ABS CBN is saying's that the cause of the whole tragedy was the people who were at the back of the "line". They were allegedly pushing and desperately trying to be given the chance to get their passes. However, since the entrance was downward-sloping, the gate which was closed to calm the people down gave in, the people in front fell and the people at the back kept walking and pushing. I could not imagine how scared the children and the old women were. Just thinking of such a horrifying scene makes me close my eyes.

Some people say that this is a reflection of how poverty made the most out of these Filipinos. Some say this is a manifestation of man's desire for wealth. But for me, this is not the time for another finger-pointing, this is not the time for us to put it in the list of "BLAME THE GOVERNMENT FOR... _____". This is another call for us to be of help, this is a reminder that we never really know what God's plan is... But above all, T'was a tragedy.

Let's pray for the victims.