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Friday, February 10, 2006
Prosecutors expand probe to include police, local execs
MANILA -- The Department of Justice will include in its investigation the possible culpability of the police and Pasig City officials in Saturday's stampede at the Philippine Sports Commission (formerly Ultra) Arena that led to the death of 71 people and injuries to more than 600 others.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr. said the report submitted by the inter-agency fact-finding task force led by Interior Undersecretary Marius Corpus may have disregarded certain points of its inquiry such that it failed to cite the culpability of the police and local officials who were supposed to secure the venue and issue the permits.
"Nobody is being cleared at this point or being identified as indictable. This is just an academic discussion, but anybody can be liable," he said.
Gonzalez, however, was quick to exonerate Pasig City Mayor Vicente Eusebio, whose only role in the tragedy, he said, was to sign the permit sought by "Wowowee", a noontime game show of ABS-CBN that organized the event.
The Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (Vacc) has committed to assist the families and relatives of those who perished and were injured in the stampede in getting damages for their plight.
Vacc founder Dante Jimenez said they have already received calls and letters from some of the injured victims and families of those who died asking for assistance in the filing of a class suit.
ABS-CBN said it would welcome a class-action suit.
"Wherever the courts go, as far as this investigation is going to go, we will accept full responsibility and accountability for all the actions we took," ABS-CBN spokeswoman Tina Monzon-Palma told reporters.
A church official, however, said the mass of the people who lined up to get the chance to win P1 million in cash, a house and lot or taxicabs during the first anniversary of "Wowowee" shows a deeper social problem.
"The stampede is the tip of the poverty iceberg in the Philippines," the former president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines said.
"It is one deadly manifestation of abject poverty," and the government cannot absolve itself of any blame or responsibility, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said.
"Where have all the public funds gone? What happened to all the money received from the huge internal and external government borrowings? How have all the ever increasing direct and indirect taxes been spent? Why are more than 16 percent of Filipinos hungry? Why do more and more Filipinos scrimp on food?" Cruz asked.
Earlier, the inter-agency fact-finding task force led by Corpus identified at least four organizers of the ABS-CBN show as liable for reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide and multiple grave physical injury.
Corpus turned over on Tuesday its findings to the DOJ but the panel of prosecutors that evaluated the report found it inadequate and wanting of sufficient evidence to warrant the conduct of a preliminary investigation.
The DOJ tapped the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to conduct a deeper inquiry into the incident since the inter-agency task force's report practically exculpated the police and other individuals.
He said the NBI should look into the claims of ABS-CBN that as early as 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. last Friday or hours before the tragedy struck, they have been calling the police and barangay officials but nobody among them responded.
"They (interior and local government) may have disregarded some of the facts or findings. So we will adopt and expand. They mentioned three to four names but eventually we may have six," Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez also said ABS-CBN's owning up of its responsibility shows good faith on the part of the network that it would not shirk from its responsibility towards the victims.
He said the admission of Eugenio Lopez III, chairman and chief executive officer of the television network, may be considered as a mitigating circumstance in its civil liability. (Sunnex)
(February 10, 2006 issue)
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