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Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Show producers face raps over stampede: justice
MANILA -- Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr. said Monday the people behind the ABS-CBN noontime television game show "Wowowee" are not yet off the hook from criminal and civil liabilities for last Saturday's stampede in Pasig City that left 79 people dead and hundreds of others wounded.
Gonzalez said the producers of the program will be facing charges of reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide, multiple injury, and damages but he declined to pinpoint the extent of liability of the giant network pending the results of a fact-finding investigation being conducted by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
Reckless imprudence has a corresponding imprisonment penalty of six months and one day to six years and one day at its minimum, or six years to 12 years of at its maximum. A fine may be fixed by the court, depending on the stature of the people involved or injured.
DILG Undersecretary for Public Safety Marius Corpus, head of the fact-finding committee looking into the tragedy, said they would release the result of their investigation Tuesday afternoon.
Corpus said their investigation focuses only on the cause of the stampede at the Philippine Sports Commission Arena (formerly Ultra) and not on who would be held liable for it. He said they will include in the report their recommendations on proper crowd management and control to avoid a repeat of the incident.
He said the Department of Justice (DOJ) will determine who among the event organizers have criminal liability. The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), which is also conducting a separate investigation on the incident, will take charge of the administrative aspect of the case, he added.
He said the Ultra stampede happened because the event organizers, policemen in charge of the area, and the local government unit lacked disaster-preparedness and crowd control systems. He added that those involved in security at the Philsports Arena also had no contingency plan in case trouble erupts.
Gonzalez had formed a panel of prosecutors headed by Senior State Prosecutor Leo Dacera that will evaluate the findings of the DILG's investigation panel, in preparation for the filing of criminal and civil actions against responsible individuals.
"At the outset, you'd think first of the organizers. Who are the ones who organized and who have control over the show? If they are the proximate cause, they should be held liable," he said.
"In situations of these nature where people are expected to gather, you can say 500 or 5,000 people will be attending, you have to consider the capacity (of the venue). ABS-CBN should have anticipated (the crowd), they have been planning this event for one week or so," he added.
Gonzalez said not even "Wowowee" host Willie Revillame is cleared of liability, since it was learned that he induced the attendance of the audience by claiming huge gift surprises such as a house and lot package worth over P2 million and a passenger jeepney for lucky audiences.
Legally, a proximate cause is defined as that which in the natural and ordinary sequence of events is broken by new and independent causes, producing another event that would not have otherwise occurred.
"The gathering itself is the proximate cause, negligence of the organizers is in there, which progressed into the occurrence of the stampede," he said.
He said the organizers of the show and the management of Philsports Arena failed to make sufficient provisions on security even after being forewarned about possible overcrowding.
In that case, the organizers acted in bad faith because they could have opted to have the show held in a bigger venue to accommodate their live audience, Gonzalez said, citing initial reports that ABS-CBN had pushed on with the show despite receiving reports of about 30,000 people wanting to enter the stadium that only has an 18,000 capacity.
He said the fact that the crowd was getting unruly is not an excuse for a security lapse. "That is not an excuse because ABS-CBN assumed the responsibility of the crowd control within the perimeter given to them in the permit issued by the local government," Gonzalez said.
The DOJ is also mulling the filing of a class suit against the show's organizers but it will only materialize if a victim or family of those killed would initiate the filing of the case. "I think we have a strong enough case. Death is proof of liability," he said.
On claims that widespread poverty in the country caused by economic mismanagement was the root of the stampede, Gonzalez said it is not President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who should be blamed for the tragedy but the Filipino's penchant for fiestas and celebrities.
Gonzalez defended Arroyo amid comments from critics of the President pinning the deaths of 79 persons who lined up to watch "Wowowee", lured by a promise of easy cash prizes and gift package such as a house-and-lot and a jeepney for lucky audiences.
"Poverty could be one reason. But how can government be liable if it's the psyche of Filipinos that they want entertainment?" he said.
The President earlier said the stampede should serve as a wake-up call for everyone to work together against poverty.
Most of those who were crushed to death or injured in the stampede came from depressed areas in Metro Manila and other parts of the country. Some quarters are blaming the President for widespread poverty that drove the poor to join the television contest in the hope of improving their lot. (ECV/JFF/Sunnex)
(February 7, 2006 issue)
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