Mine tangled thoughts IV

Last Saturday, I was fielding some text messages about an accident in Camarines Sur that claimed the life of beauty queen Melody Gersbach. Honestly, I couldn't make sense of it because I was busy with work at the CWC. It was my first time there and was trying to figure out how to best cover the event. I was battling early symptoms of another bout with the flu and I had to deal with an bumbling assistant. It was only on my way home last Sunday where I finally understood and realized that a stupid and reckless bus driver took Gersbach's life.

Incredibly, last Saturday also, I witnessed a tourist bus (that was being used to shuttle triathletes, guests and media back and forth from their hotels to CWC) nearly run over two participants inside the complex itself. In case you haven't been there, the roads inside the CWC are narrow. But the driver has a clear view of everything around him. There are no blind corners where he can hit a car or someone coming through. 

The two triathletes were so incensed that it took a while to placate them. They cussed the living hell out of the driver and demanded that he come down so they could kick the crap out of him. They were close to getting flattened by the bus.

The one thing that we all have to understand is these buses are the so-called kings of the road not just in the provinces but also here in the metro. Something clearly must be done with all these reckless driving and road conditions especially in the provinces where it's dark and dangerous.

Yesterday, I was just home trying to get back my strength for work on Tuesday. But I couldn't as the hostage situation in Manila nipped at my heels. I prayed for a speedy resolution to this. But by nightfall, nothing had changed except for the danger factor that got raised several levels higher.

I really don't know all the facts of what transpired but the one thing I also wondered about was whether our cops were well-trained in hostage situations. I certainly knew we didn't have the equipment to figure out what was going on inside so why didn't they ask help either from the Hong Kong security who came over or the Americans who surely have that kind of powerful equipment to determine everyone's location inside. That kind of equipment and intel would have been a powerful tool on seeking a quick resolution to what was going on.

The standoff reminded me of an incident during my youth where the BPI bank in Rustan's Cubao was held up. The cops were able to quickly respond (after all there was a detachment outside the Araneta Coliseum at that time) and the thieves were unable to make their getaway.

I don't know if anyone died. What I do remember is the cops firing tear gas inside so they could storm the bank and take down the bad guys. Instead they charged right in without any gas masks. It was a joke. They rushed out with their eyes watery and filled with tears.

It was a cosmic joke and the incompetence of those cops contributed to my the formation of my general opinion about cops -- I don't like them.

I'm not saying here that the cops that were on the scene of yesterday's hostage situation were at fault. Again, I don't have all the facts and would like to read what happened since there are conflicting reports.

The one thing I'm feeling from all of this is some kind of sadness. Not just for the deaths but also the incident and how we Filipinos will be perceived all over the world. The reactions -- right or wrong, knee jerk or not --- are going to hurt us. The advisory from Hong Kong about declaring the country unsafe for travel is painful. Obviously, the actions of one man do not define all of us. I know what it's like to be on the receiving end of racism having worked abroad. I even got into a fight with an officemate in NYC after he made some derogatory remarks about Filipinos.

I'm just hoping that things get better for us. How can we go through so much?

Bummer.