Indeed, Saturday's tragedy has jolted everyone back to reality.

For awhile now, society has been too busy on politics. on feuds. on arguing whether or not a change in government structure or amending the constitution would be the answer to the crisis the country is beset with. we have spent too much time yakking about the government that the real problems of the people seem to have been overlooked. it is precisely to watch out for the interests of the public, and to institute policies safeguarding them that the government is in place. what then happens if the problem lies within government after all? what do we do when the problem-solvers and policy-makers turn out to be the main problem? where do people run to?

the desperate turn to their faith. they offer all their pains and all their hopes to God. they wait for miracles. others strive to make the miracle happen. there are those who simply give up, tired of living from day to day to day, never knowing how tomorrow will come. as for the tens of thousands who were at the Ultra for Wowowee's first anniversary: TV game shows are the way to go. after all, they have nothing to lose by banking on their luck. they pin their hopes on the show's host. they pray hard that they can join the contest so they can win either the cash prize or the livelihood showcase or the passenger tricycle or jeep they can use to eke out a living.

everyday, from Mondays thru Saturdays, the ABS-CBN studios are host to a long queue of people. some of them stay outside the gates overnight just so they can be first on the line. they come by the hundreds, thousands even. they don't all get to join in as studio contestants, and certainly, they don't all get to take home the money. still, they come everyday.

in terms of ratings, and TV audience share, they say Wowowee has not yet toppled it's staunchest rival: the long-running noontime show Eat Bulaga. yet one cannot deny that Wowowee does not lack of sponsors from where the prizes come from. one cannot deny the number of people who wish to be part of the show. i have seen that wowowee is not patronized for its entertainment value, and certainly not for the jokes it's host is known for, but for the hope it brings to the impoverished. they make it look easy to make money.

it was no surprise that when the prizes for the first anniversary were announced, and the venue was revealed, people started flocking five days before the actual event. they came to mark their stakes. with their extra clothes and packs of food, they come. they sleep on the sidewalks. make friends with fellow hopefuls. suffer the scorn of the upperclass who live in the vicinity of the event venue. they stay until the gates open for them. all that for a chance at fortune.

but as luck would have it, disaster struck. the eagerness and excitement could not be contained. perhaps the people were afraid they won't be let in. maybe they thought that the closing of the gate meant that their dreams were being shot down. and so they rushed and pushed forward. chaos reigned over a disciplined and orderly entry to the venue. the rest was survival of the fittest. the very young and the elderly were left to be the casualties.

i believe though that had they known that their lives would be the trade-off for the prize their families would receive, they still would have gone through with it. such was the desperation. and such was the hope that the show brought into their lives. but none would have thought that such a thing could happen. no. no one anticipated that there even was a remote chance that it would happen. but it did.

and now people are looking for someone to blame.

no, the people who were there, nor the families of the victims, would dare point a finger to the show's organizers. specially since the network immediately stepped up to take responsibility of all medical and funeral expenses of the 200-300 injured and 80 dead. they are opening themselves to abuse. surely, some will take advantage of the help that is pouring in. but that's another matter. government is desperate to step into the picture to show that they're doing something. they say they will make sure that justice won't be denied. but what is justice in this case? is it to punish abs-cbn for not taking enough precautions for crowd control? is it to reprimand the police for not taking charge of crowd control? is it to sanction the security guards in the venue for closing the gate for what they thought would be a chance for getting order?

i don't understand what justice the government is looking for.

one would have thought that this tragedy would bring to fore the needs of the common tao. One would have thought that there is no sweeter justice than for poverty alleviation mechanisms to be set in place. One could dream that more programs that provide the very same hope that Wowowee brings could be set up and be accessible to the people who need it. 

the lives lost need not have been lost in vain. what better way to honor their memory than to setup social welfare programs that would address the very situation that drove them to wowowee?

but what would i know?

*i was hoping i could link this post to a news article posted about the tragedy but i couldn't find an appropriate one. i'll keep looking.