ACCIDENTS happened, but in Davao, accidents happened in succession over the weekend.
First, a restaurant in Gaisano Mall Davao caught fire, but was immediately put out and no casualties were reported. Then a man plunged his Toyota Innova into the sea of Sasa Wharf resulting to his death.
Then on early Monday dawn, noises like gunfight rattled residents in Talomo at around 2 to 3 am. It took over 12 hours later or around 3 pm for police authorities to reveal that there was an attempt to arrest a New People’s Army leader allegedly hiding in a resort in Talomo. There were no arrests or bodies presented, (they escaped, perhaps to the sea?), except the firearms and “subversive” documents police said were left behind by the rebels.
Meanwhile on Sunday, a truck in Kabacan carrying high school students from an event over sped and turned turtle in a ravine. Two teachers died, students were injured.
There are official statements on these incidents, and there are also unofficial statements, which I will present here.
A netizen posted that on that night they were doing their grocery in the mall when the fire occurred, and she never heard a fire alarm or announcement of an evacuation. There was only Christmas songs blaring, and grocery store clerks mumbling about the fire that will force them to work under time if they all evacuated. This is infuriating, the netizen said, since a fire broke out and an evacuation could have taken place.
The NCCC fire tragedy last December is still fresh from our memories, and recent news about fires should have made mall owners more aware of how to react for the safety of its customers.
That car plunging at the wharf turned netizens into analysts. Driver must be drunk. Driver must have slept while waiting for the barge, stirred up and accidentally stepped on the pedal plunging his car. Driver must be thinking suicide.
I happened to know a friend of the victim, and she was worried how the comments described Fernando Pacaldo. He just fell asleep, he always does that, he just wanted to rush home for his kid, she said.
What was missing in the news though, is how rescue was slow. It took 45 minutes for responders to arrive and retrieve Fernando, who already drowned.
But the Talomo incident is most head scratching. Netizens whirled theories that Mautes are here. One has to wonder if this is a poorly written script straight out of Ang Probinsyano. But already, some netizens screamed Martial Law needs to be extended to keep Davawenyos safe. But what are the facts?
But what should concern us is how we look at safety. Can we say only checkpoints make us safe? What about basic skills like evacuating in an event of fire or earthquake, or rescuing a man hurt on the streets? In these cases, the issue of safety differs from us citizens and authorities who are chasing shadows.