Probes and more probes

How many probes will it take to pinpoint responsibility for the disaster at the ULTRA? Already, there are comments that the report presented by the Department of Justice is not comprehensive enough. Probe I has been questioned, so we move on to Probe II, to Probe III and even to IV and V, eventually? The confusion and the arguments will most likely result in the probers out-probing each other, while the survivors and the families of victims will be fending for themselves.

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One cannot help wondering what kind of order and discipline are being observed in this tragedy. Even the returning of cash found on one of the victims has been questioned, and confusion reigns there, too. There's this family claiming that their mother had P50,000 on her when she went to the ULTRA, and had bank documents to prove the withdrawal. Then another comes along, with just as credible a claim. Since the police, or those in charge had already given the cash - P49,000 only - to one family, who will make it up to the other claimants?

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What is this again? They say that the DILG official who was quoted as saying it and had wobbled a bit earlier, has gotten back and admitted that he did say that the victims were treated like animals. It is the truth, he reportedly told the media. But he repeated that he did not direct it to the TV company responsible for the program. So, to whom was it directed? To the cops who tried to bring order to the stampeding horde? To the paramedics who took the injured to the hospitals? To the volunteers who helped pluck out the bodies? Did they do it as if they were handling animals? Reports and images on TV didn't show it that way.

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Maybe some people who can claim to have been treated like animals are the agents and operatives from the National Bureau of Investigation who were allegedly hogtied and beaten up by men they say are members of the police and civilians aiding them. Now, that was truly animal treatment, if true. So far, I have heard of various charges against the NBI men made by the cops and the people there, but I have not heard anybody say yet that there was no hogtieing and no punishment inflicted on the hogtied ones. For sure these had felt like animals, like pigs or goats about to be slaughtered, as they lay there.

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Even if the NBI men are later to be found out to have committed lapses in the manner they supposedly served that warrant, the cops who happened to be present at the hogtieing, and alleged kicking and mauling, still have a lot to answer for. Aside from the National Police Commission that has stringent rules regarding police behaviors, the Commission on Human Rights will have something to say about the incident. Police versus NBI - it would have been quite comical if it were not so shocking.

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From the start, it was very noticeable that the victims of the ULTRA stampede were mostly women, and some children. Few men were mentioned, and, at first I thought it was because men have stronger survival instincts. It has been confirmed, however, that there were only three male victims, because the crowd was composed overwhelmingly of women. Does it mean that women feel the need to get material benefits from quickie means more than men, or is it because they are drawn to the male characters hosting or presented in the program? Perhaps, after all the probes are over, someone will make a study on this phenomenon.

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Meanwhile, the Task Force that initially probed the Ultra affair and presented its findings, found support from Pasig City Mayor Vicente Eusebio who also blames the event organizers for the catastrophe. Maybe he wants to take the heat off his cops, but really, didn't the Pasig Police not feel concerned when the crowd was getting bigger and bigger and it was obvious that the venue could no longer hold them? Another investigation on this angle? Make it a dozen, even a baker's dozen.

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I caught sight last night on TV of a plane that plunged down and crashed while the pilot was performing stunts for a celebration somewhere in Luzon. The plane looked like one of postwar vintage and the pilot must be a daredevil one to attempt the stunts. I heard he survived. He should be given a medal for exceptional bravery.*

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