General Admission

 

 ‘Ultragedy’
By Al S. Mendoza

 

 

 

 

If you were Willie Revillame, what would you be doing now?

Willie, of course, is the host of the tragedy-stricken  “Wowowee” noontime ABS-CBN show that claimed 71  lives and injured more than 300 in a stampede on Feb. 4 at the Ultra (Philsports) in Pasig City.

I don’t know why they continue to call Philsports Ultra. I’ve always disliked the name Ultra given the edifice many years back.  Now see what happened. From Ultra, it now sports the dark moniker, “Ultragedy.”

I’ve covered the PBA games on radio at Ultra from 1986 to 1992. On game nights when the gym is packed to the rafters, I could hardly breathe inside.  Ultra is not your type of a coliseum where you hold sold-out events.  It is small and can hardly hold 12,000.

But according to reports, nearly 30,000 had queued for the “Wowowee” anniversary show on Feb. 4 as early as evening of Feb. 3.  In fact, one week before the show, fans had camped out at the Ultra premises hoping to be the first to enter the gymnasium on anniversary day. 

That’s because money had been dangled in wild abandon for the first to arrive.

Not bad to give incentives. 

What was bad was to underestimate the capacity of fans, especially the masa, to come in droves. 
 

You know, these are really terrible times.  Money these days is as scarce as water in a desert.  Any amount of money to be received for free is manna from heaven. 

To illustrate, the son of my kumpadre had to accept a job as utility in a yet reputable company in Manila only last week. 

His pay? 

Fifty pesos a day.

You know what he said?

“It’s   OK, ninong,” he said. “I am allowed to sleep in the building premises, anyway.”

How about your food?

“Not free, ninong,” he said.  “But it’s OK.  My fifty pesos can buy me enough rice to tide me over for the day.”

His wife and two kids live in the province. He doesn’t have work Saturdays and Sundays.

“I hope to have a sideline on Saturdays and Sundays, ninong,” he said.  “Can I do garden work weekends in your house, wash your car, too?”

He is the son of my high school classmate, who died only last October.

He says he doesn’t mind the low pay.

“For as long as I have a job, it’s OK ninong,” he said.

He knows his pay is well below the legal minimum wage, which is nearly P300 a day in Metro Manila.

“It’s OK, ninong,” he said. “As I said, it’s not the pay, it’s the job.”

He started work last Feb. 6, two days after the “Wowowee” tragedy.

Had you known about the millions of pesos, not to mention tricycles, a passenger jeepney and a house a lot, dangled to fans in the “Wowowee” anniversary show on Feb. 4, would you have gone to the Ultra, too?

“Yes, Ninong,” he said. “But I could only borrow my fare money in going to Manila from the province on Feb. 5, a day before I was to start work.”

He missed it by one day. For that, he lives on to continue joining the millions of marginalized Filipinos clinging on to hopes of a good life in the Big City – even as the “Wowowee”  is gone.  For good, nobody knows.

If I were Willie Revillame, I’ll go to church everyday for 74 weeks in memory of the 74 who perished in the “Ultragedy.”
        

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