PNP and local gov't also liable for WOWOWEE tragedy because of Arroyo's CPR

Before anything else, i'd like to first say na yung "No Permit, No Rally" at "Calibrated Pre-emptive Response" ng Arroyo administration ay UNCONSTITUTIONAL and has no place in a free democratic country like ours. Only the most insecure, illegitimate regimes and those with dictatorial tendencies would think of implementing these rules.

Having said that, I can't remove the "No permit, no rally" and CPR policy since I'm not the one running this admin.

And since the Arroyo admin DO practice CPR, ito ang tanong: how can their DILG and their police say na wala silang responsibilidad sa pangyayari sa WOWOWEE tragedy when walang permit yung crowd na nag-form doon? Aren't they supposed to use CPR pag walang rally permit?? Shouldn't they be dispersing (or at least help control) huge crowds like the one at the ULTRA?

But let's be honest here, "No permit, no rally" and CPR are special laws meant to be implemented only for a special group of people--THOSE CALLING FOR ARROYO TO STEP DOWN.

And it's not true na hindi humingi ng police assistance ang ABS-CBN sa local gov't, so how can they (DILG, PNP, Local gov't) wash their hands of this and blame it all on ABS-CBN alone?

Thanks BFRonquillo for providing the inspiration for this post.

BTW, yung minadali at shrill na report ng Task Force ULTRA -- where it blames ABS-CBN for all the mess, while absolving the DILG, police and local gov't of any liabilities -- is partisan and totally unreliable.

More here: Police liable for stampede, CHR.

Even as the task force absolved the police and the local government executives from any liability and responsibility for the stampede that killed 74 persons and injured over 600, the Commission on Human Rights yesterday said the Philippine National Police should also be held liable for the stampede, with CHR chairman Dominador Calamba II stressing the police should have taken the lead role in ensuring the safety of the people.

“They should be the ones to command the security of the ABS-CBN because they are the prime law enforcement agency in the Philippines,” he said.

Edwin Lacierda is upset at DOJ sec. Raul Gonzalez for his reckless and irresponsible statements pre-judging the WOWOWEE tragedy.

As Justice Secretary, he ought to have exercised sobriety and called the people to wait for the investigation to play out. It is not his bounden duty to excite the people to further rage and bloodletting. Neither is it his vocation to puff himself up at the expense of others...

As Justice Secretary, he should be called to task for his irresponsible statements. As a high government official, people look to his opinion as gospel truth, no matter whether his claims are unsupported by law and jurisprudence. With callous statements designed to further aggravate the people's angst and pathos, many will look to him for justification to vent their rage and now that he has prejudged ABS, he has just intensified the clone wars between the TV stations.

Edwin, SiRAULo's and Corpus' statements were meant inflame the public against ABS-CBN, while at the same time absolving the DILG, police, the local gov't and the arroyo admin of any liabilities.

It is no different from the radical imams who preach and incite violence and hatred against the "infidels" and the West, or how the state-controlled media in the Middle East dictatorships inflame the Arab world by constantly attacking and blaming Israel and the US for all their problems as a way to divert attention from their own failures and lack of freedom.

More from Howie Severino:

The panel investigating the Philsports arena (Ultra) stampede just released its report, with a damning off-the-cuff assessment by the panel chair. While awaiting entry into the Wowowee celebration, the mammoth crowd was "treated like animals," according to Local Governments and Interior Undersecretary Marius Corpus.

"Offering so few tickets to so many people can be likened to throwing a small slice of meat to a hungry pack of wolves, and that triggered the stampede," he added. ABS has issued its own statement of outrage at the panel's graphic metaphors.

Having observed the testimony and news coverage for the past two days, I am not sure the government can pretend it is not liable for this disaster as well. And it's not only because it hasn't solved the poverty that supposedly was at the root of the tragedy.

The police has been trying to wash its hands by saying the organizers didn't bother to coordinate with them. Whether they got an invite card or not, the police must be actively involved in any event that spills over into public space. Rather than waiting for certain courtesies, they have the power to order the organizers to coordinate. That's why they're called "authorities".

So it was strange to see a sneering police official sitting as part of the investigating panel and then pontificating even before the release of the report about what ABS-CBN should or should not have done.

Same with the local government of Pasig. Weren't they worried enough about the growing crowd to ring an alarm bell in the organizer's face?

UPDATE: From Lito Banayo:

Certainly, ABS-CBN officials have a lot to answer for. Obviously, the security precautions left much to be desired. Obviously too, they had not foreseen the deadly possibilities of such a huge crowd. Even more obvious, could there have been no better, more orderly system by which their "kapamilya" could access tickets to a show planned months in advance?

But to their credit, network officials are taking full responsibility, and from the moment disaster struck, they were all over, hiding nothing, doing everything humanly possible in the wake of monumental tragedy.

Let me just note here that their editors should stop showing footages taken by their cameramen on the demonstrations of grief of people who saw their family members among the dead. Grief should be kept as private as possible, whether the subjects are rich or poor. Let us not rob the poor of their dignity by showing how humanly they respond to the loss of dear lives.

What I cannot take is how the NCRPO chief, this guy who fancies himself to be media’s darling, could preen before TV cameras on the spot, after the fact, and teach reporters the laws of gravity as if he were a high school Physics instructor.

The gall! Whether or not the network officials coordinated with the police, the primary responsibility of preventing such tragic incidents rests with the PNP. They are supposed to take care of the physical safety of people, whether those crossing a busy street or those encamping in a forlorn cranny of the concrete jungle.

If a guy like Rogie de la Paz, who knows next to nothing about police work and security matters, felt uneasy about the dire possibilities of such a huge crowd, shouldn’t the police, who must have seen how traffic in the area had been bottled up for days due to the encampment of the lumpen, not have predicted the dire possibilities, and stepped in to prevent these?

Second, isn’t there supposed to be a nationwide alert on terrorism, specially sensitive to peacekeepers among our uniformed men? Imagine the pregnant possibilities for murder and mayhem of a crowd of thousands upon the insane terrorist who could have lobbed a grenade or two, even a pillbox? Were not our policemen, led by Querol, sensitive to this. Or is Querol’s antenna tuned only to the boob tube or the airwaves?

Third, and this is most telling, the Eastern Police District maintains a fully staffed headquarters a block or so away from the ULTRA in Pasig. In fact, there is even a detention prison nearby, quite obviously with policemen. Seeing the crowds mass, could they not have done something to instill order, so as to prevent disaster? Or could they not have alerted the NCRPO chief, Vidal Querol, for "guidance"? Or even Lomibao to pause a while from studying Hagedorn’s small town lotto and its effects on lucrative jueteng, and focus on the massing of the lumpen, whether with terrorism in their minds, or even their favorite buzzword, "destabilization"?

How well prepared these policemen of Querol and Lomibao always are at preventing the masses and their leaders from marching towards the stinking palace beside the stinking Pasig. With truncheons and shields, barbed wire and firetrucks, policemen in anti-riot gear are always at the scene, dwarfing the marchers two or three to one, in order to draw the line at Mendiola and other streets, just to make sure their Doña is protected from the sights and sounds of furious protest. Not for them to weigh the truth or justice in the people’s angst versus the lying, cheating and stealing of the subject they protect. Theirs not to question why, theirs but to do and die, to borrow a line from Tennyson.

And allow Vidal Querol to sashay before the cameras later, explaining with calibrated wersh-wersh twang, as if hoping to be employed by a call center when he retires, the strictures of his fake commander-in-chief’s "Calibrated Pre-emptive Response".

What about a Calibrated Preventive Routine, which should be uppermost in every policeman’s mind? Routine thinking that would prevent any untoward incident from happening before it happens? Routine thinking that senses danger where hundreds or thousands of people congregate right under your noses?

In a land called Japan, someone as similarly situated as Vidal Querol would have immediately resigned his post in shame. A generation or two before, someone as similarly shamed as Vidal Querol would have committed seppuku.

But this is not Japan. This is the land of officials whose faces are as thick as armor, whose hides are as protective as the crocodile’s. Woe unto us.

Meanwhile, till the next disaster, let us pray for the souls of the departed. And wonder while we pray if there are lessons learned, and if there is a message from God here somewhere.