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For the past 17 years, The Filipino Express has provided the Filipino American community the best news, arts and entertainment coverage from around the United States and the Philippines.
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SEA OF DEAD BODIES. Bodies of victims of the "Wowowee" stampede are laid on the road outside the PhilSports Arena (formerly ULTRA) in Pasig City on Saturday, Feb. 4. As of the last count, 74 people, mostly women and children, were killed and more than 500 others were injured.
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MANILA --- At least 74 people were confirmed dead and about 500 were injured on Saturday, February 4, when about 30,000 people lined up outside the PhilSports Arena (formerly ULTRA) to watch the TV game show “Wowowee” surged toward the gates in the mistaken belief they were open.
(More stories on Page 28 of hardcopy; more photos on Page 17 of hardcopy)
A task force investigating the weekend stampede later said fans had been “treated like animals” by network executives, who could be criminally liable.
The crowd was “enticed and made to suffer all sorts of inconveniences and in that sense were exploited, manipulated and treated like animals,” said Interior Undersecretary Marius Corpus, head of the task force.
Eugenio Lopez III, the chairman of ABS-CBN, producer of the Wowowee game show, said on Tuesday, February 7, that he will take full responsibility for the stampede that killed more than 70 people trying to join the show’s first-anniversary presentation at the Ultra on Saturday, February 4.
He lashed out at the statement made by the task force’s Corpus. “We are outraged at the statement of the task force characterizing the way our program was run as treating people like animals,” he said. “Our record over the last 30 years speaks for itself. We have covered events—some of them with well over a hundred thousand people.”
About 30,000 people were waiting to get inside the Philsports Arena for the show “Wowowee” when the stampede occurred, said Vicente Eusebio, the mayor of suburban Pasig, where the stampede occurred.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who visited the injured in hospitals, ordered authorities to conduct a thorough investigation and submit a report to her in 72 hours.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said 74 people were killed, including a person who died of massive bleeding more than 12 hours after the stampede; 514 were injured.
Survivors said the game show was to include a raffle with a jackpot equivalent to $384.
“The raffle tickets can be obtained at the gate so everyone was in a hurry. There was pushing and people in front of the gate were crushed,” said Myrna Britania, 42, who spent all night in line.
“People at the back of the line were pushing, not knowing there were already people dead lying on the ground in front.”
Merquiades Salazar cried over the body of his wife, who was among those crushed. Salazar, 45, said the couple was jobless and wanted to try their luck at winning the jackpot.
“In the desire to win money, she is the one I lost,” Salazar sobbed as he stroked his dead wife’s hair. His son, Melvin, who had accompanied his wife, said, “We both fell and we were both pinned to the ground.”
Bags and shoes littered the scene. Authorities lined up the bodies outside the stadium for identification. Officials put digital photographs of unidentified bodies on windows.
Overwhelmed, some hospitals used parking lots to accommodate the injured. The Rizal Medical Center alone was treating more than 200 people, said Sen. Richard Gordon, head of the Red Cross.
Arroyo consoled the injured during a visit to the medical center, putting her hands on the shoulders of Leny Subayco, 35, who was waiting for an X-ray of her injured leg.
“The one I was trying to help also perished,” she told Arroyo through tears.
Subayco later told reporters she and others were pressed against the gate of the stadium as people fell on top of one another. She said she lost consciousness and when she came to, she was pinned underneath people.
“Under me was a dead person, beside me there was another dead and there was another dead above me,” she said.
Vice President Noli de Castro helped direct rescue efforts at the stadium, giving instructions to police to clear the area of people and cars.
“We did not want this to happen. It’s just that there were so many people wanting to watch ‘Wowowee’ because of the big prizes awaiting them,” de Castro said.
Filipino-American Brenda Baranquil, who has watched the show in Los Angeles, said thousands of people already were lined up when she arrived at the stadium on Thursday, a day after arriving from the United States to visit her ailing mother.
“I knew it was a time bomb ready to explode,” she said, citing the lack of police officers to manage the crowd.
The game show, organized by ABS-CBN TV network, is popular in the Philippines because it offers big prizes, like cars and money. Some people had lined up for two days to get tickets.
Gordon blamed the tragedy on poor organization.
“If you predict that there’s going to be a huge crowd, you should be ready with ambulances and communications,” he said. “You should plan for the worst. We have a lot of people who wanted to help but could not get in immediately.” (MNS)
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IN HAPPIER DAYS. Manny Pacquiao with girlfriend Jaonna Rose Bacosa and their now two-year old love child.
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MANILA --- It was true love gone wrong. Or so the woman scorned said.
Until last year, Manny Pacquiao and his girlfriend of more than two years were two people blissfully enjoying stolen moments together.
Their relationship resulted in the birth of a healthy boy, according to Pacquiao’s girlfriend, Joanna Rose Bacosa, a 24-year-old native of Palawan province.
Today, Bacosa is pursuing a complaint against Pacquiao for violation of Republic Act No. 9262, which protects women from violence, and to seek support for the boy, according to a Philippine Daily Inquirer report.
Dubbed the “Pinoy Cinderella Man,” Pacquiao came home to a hero’s welcome two weeks ago after a triumphant fight against three-time world champion Erik Morales of Mexico.
From a poor “panadero” [bakery worker], Pacquiao is now a multimillionaire and an inspiration to Filipinos dreaming of the good life.
Father’s name
In an interview, Bacosa said the child was born on Jan. 2, 2004, baptized in a Quezon City church and given Pacquiao’s name. She showed Church and legal documents as well as their photos during happier times to bolster her claim.
The 2-year-old child romped in the room in a building on Tomas Morato Avenue in Quezon City where the interview was held.
He is a jolly, fair-complexioned boy, his fists visibly firm and big. When shown a picture of Pacquiao, he shouted in glee: “Manny! Manny!”
Where it all began
Her child, Bacosa said, was a product of two people in love that began at the billiard hall and videoke bar of Pan Pacific Hotel in Manila’s Malate district. Pacquiao was the billiard center’s frequent guest and player. She was its billiard “spotter” and waitress.
Bacosa and Pacquio first met there in February 2003.
Initially, the Palawan lass didn’t know he was Pacquiao, the boxing star. She had no interest in sports, she said. He was there almost every night, but what she noticed was that Pacquiao was calling her by her first name. The other male customers were simply calling her “Miss.”
He was sweet
“He was so nice and sweet. And he was paying me more attention than the rest,” Bacosa recalled. Pacquiao first invited her on a date in April 2003. She was about to wrap up her day’s work at 3 a.m. “Because I had grown fond of him, I didn’t think twice in joining him.”
They drove to a hotel in Pasay City, she said. In no time, Pacquiao and Joanna took a room and stayed there for hours. Before leaving, Pacquiao tried to give her money, but she turned it down, telling him she was not a sex worker.
She was with him because she was in love with him, Bacosa said. She was fully aware, she said, that he was a married man and had two kids by his legal wife.
And came often...
After the first date, Pacquiao went to the billiard hall more often, and was sweeter to her than he had ever been.
They went out and checked in at the same hotel two more times, each time longer than the first.
On both occasions, Pacquiao offered her some cash, but Bacosa said she turned it down for the same reason: She was with him because of love, not money.
Paquiao once called her, saying he couldn’t see her because he was out of town preparing for a big fight. She was a little bit depressed, she said. It was April 29, her 22nd birthday. In less than an hour, he showed up at the billiard hall, saying he only wanted to pull a surprise.
In May 2003, Bacosa learned she was pregnant. When she broke the news to him, Pacquiao appeared jubilant. It was as if he were a first-time father, she said.
He later asked her to stop working and to move to another apartment to keep away from intrigue. She agreed.
In November 2003, he gave her P300,000 as a Christmas gift. This time, she accepted it because she needed to pay her hospitals bills. In January 2004, she gave birth to the boy.
Happy at news of a boy
Told of his son, Pacquiao seemed happy. He saw the boy three weeks later. But soon, the visits came few and far between.
In November 2005, Joanna said she got a call from Pacquiao asking her to see him in Cebu. Mother and son’s tickets were provided by Pacquiao’s friend, Wakee Salud.
There, at a Cebu hotel, father and son met again after so many months. He was visibly pleased that he allowed someone to take their pictures together.
After the meeting, Pacquiao gave Bacosa P3,000 for the boy. Little did she know that it was to be the last time she would see him.
She kept on calling him. She sent him text messages, pleading for support for the boy. “I will surprise you,” she was told. But until she met with lawyer Victor Rodriguez last week, the surprise never came.
She instead got calls from Pacquiao’s wife, Jinkee, and some of his friends who tried to prevent her from seeking legal counsel.
Now a wayward truck
On Jan. 31, she was surprised to get a call from Pacquiao himself. But it was no longer the man she knew, she said.
Shouting, he reportedly told her: “What are you doing?” She replied: “Why, what am I doing?” But Pacquiao had the momentum of a wayward truck.
“If you have a problem, why don’t you just talk to me?” Pacquiao yelled at her. “Why do you have to talk to somebody else? What do you want? Financial support? I have helped other people, why do you think I shouldn’t help you. Do you want me to have that boy kidnapped so there wouldn’t be evidence? Tell your lawyer to shut up or I will sew his mouth.”
Bacosa said she had become so afraid of Pacquiao that she didn’t want anyone to know where she was staying now.
She said she was fully aware that she might be accused of simply wanting to milk Pacquiao now that he is a multimillionaire.
Love is lost
Under the Family Code, she said, if a woman wins a case, only the child gets support. She wouldn’t get anything unless Pacquiao agreed to it.
Part of any settlement she gets when the case is resolved will go to a trust fund, she said. The boy can only use it when he turns 21.
To those who criticized her, Bacosa said she would like to say that telling one’s sad story was not an easy thing to do. She is telling hers now, she said, to illustrate that it was love that took place between them.
“I loved him then. Today, I love him not,” she said.
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