Politics amid tragedy

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Politics amid tragedy
Sunday, 02 12, 2006

The tragedy at the Ultra happened because people were that desperate to salve their hopes, their dreams, which were never addressed by a callous government.

While government has defaulted on its role as provider, the institution behind the game show Wow-wow-wee has wisely filled in the gap — and how that institution played its unsolicited role in the service of a people given to desperation, and motivate a host of kind-hearted souls to share their wealth with the poor!

When finding fault, or pinpointing criminal negligence, it is not right to lay the blame on the provider of the solution to the problems caused by the government. It is already enough that ABS-CBN has played its role well beyond its primary mission to inform and entertain. To fault it for the tragedy no one expected in the course of its self-imposed role of public service in lieu of government is just too much, unfair and smacks of undisguised political opportunism where the blame is deflected elsewhere.

Worse, the specter of ABS-CBN’s losing its license to operate on account of the tragedy sends a chilling message to media critical of the government. Why else should one discuss the possibilities, if not to intimidate or even put it out of circulation? And just yesterday, a juvenile spokesman of the government claimed that ABS-CBN has been dipping its hands into some foundation funds to help the victims of the tragedy. The height of irresponsible politics, if we ever heard of one.

Everybody knows that ABS-CBN is at odds with the government: it is the government’s worst critic. And unlike other critics whose voices are listened to by only a negligible few, ABS-CBN has the widest reach and therefore offers the most effective medium. It was expected then that when the tragedy — a stroke of bad luck for ABS-CBN — happened, the government seized it as a fortuitous excuse to pounce on the network that has been steadily exposing its shenanigans.

The government lost no time in setting a 72-hour limit for a fact-finding probe, by a panel that was not expected anyhow to be impartial, involving as it did investigators who otherwise should have been themselves the subject of the investigation. Look back at the tragedies past, including the most recent deaths of many on a boat that capsized in a fluvial parade in Samar. There was never any instance setting a short deadline to terminate a probe; the composition of the probe teams was never at issue.

But ABS-CBN, by reason of its less than convivial relationship with the government, was treated differently. The finger of accusation was already pointed at ABS-CBN even before the probe began. The speed with which the team unearthed its facts was faster than the panicked run of anyone who ever ran for his life in the stampede. If the merciless grilling of its chief security officer from the hands of the team, and the continuing investigation by the Department of Justice to fill in the gaps in the findings of facts of the earlier probe team are of any indication, ABS-CBN might as well assume right now that the stage has been set for its crucifixion.

The editorializing of the report of the probe team by its chairman — likening the admission tickets to a piece of meat and portraying the desperate thousands as hope to a pack of hungry wolves — was the unkindest cut of all. This dismissive gesture betrays a meanness of spirit and contempt for the mass of people who thronged at the Ultra in the hope of getting a ticket that might win them a redemption from destitution. A fact-finding team is supposed to simply state the facts as established by the probe. It is totally out of sync with the elementary standards of fairness to go beyond the facts established or even delve on the speculative. The conclusions, whether fair or foul, are to be made in another forum, but never in an ad hoc body with a limited role to play and a questionable mandate to discharge.

ABS-CBN has been very forthright in admitting its responsibility over the tragedy; its full, open and fair reportage a model. On the other hand, the government has not accepted its counterpart share (if not outright full share) in the responsibility. But then, when was there ever a time that this government admitted that it goofed? Never. Instead, it lies, it obfuscates the truth, it looks the other way and turns a deaf ear, or finds a convenient scapegoat.

When government plays dumb about what it should have done, it becomes a greater immorality when it becomes unkind and mean to the people and institutions who never waver to fill in what, by obligation, government should have provided. It makes no sense for anyone to believe any further in a government that thrives on the misfortune of its people and its critics. The victims of that kind of government always get the people’s sympathy. Look at how the victims and their families have accepted the magnanimity of ABS-CBN. And look at how not one of them has responded to the call for a complainant — even at much coaching by a crusaders’ group dancing to the beat of the government — to come forward and cry criminal negligence against ABS-CBN.

The people unerringly recognize politics and its ugly hand when they see one. The politics beclouding the rush into judgment in the tragedy has diminished many, and that certainly does not include ABS-CBN.

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