Negligence blamed for stampede deaths

Manila: An inquiry into the deadly stampede at a televised game show exposed inadequate preparations on the part of the organisers to secure the venue.

"The people were exploited, manipulated and treated like animals," an inter-agency task force looking into Saturday morning stampede at the Philsports Arena in suburban Pasig City summed up its findings of the tragedy that claimed 74 lives and hurt over 600 others.

In a news briefing yesterday, task force head, interior undersecretary Marius Corpus said at least three personalities who organised the event, a live taping of the hugely popular gameshow Wowowe, could be held liable for the incident.

"We are trying to determine the extent of liability of the organisers," Corpus said. For its part, the presidents' palace said it will leave to proper authorities the prosecution of individuals liable for causing the tragedy.

"We leave to the proper authorities the prosecution of those who would be found liable for the stampede as well as the implementation of the corrective measures to prevent a repeat of this tragedy, based on the recommendations of the fact-finding board," the palace statement said. Corpus had blamed the decision by the organisers to offer only a few admission tickets for the show as he likened the gesture to "throwing a small slice of meat to a pack of hungry wolves."

"That act triggered the stampede and led to the deaths of the victims," he said.

With deaths topping 74 people, the tragedy has been considered as among the country's biggest non-calamity mass casualty incidents in Philippine history. It has prompted the Office of the Civil Defence-National Disaster Coordination Council (OCD-NDCC) to develop a policy to address such occurrences.

"The stampede could have been prevented if the government adopted the incident command system for handling crises," OCD-NDCC deputy administrator Anthony Golez said.

Based on testimonies from the survivors, the crowds gathered at the Philsports Arena at 4 am had been informed by security guards that the gates would be opened at 6 am.

The guards promised that prizes would be raffled off to those who would not be let inside, but the crowd far outnumbered the number of tickets given away, Corpus said. He also reiterated that ABS-CBN, the network who organised the event, did not have a contingency plan in case the crowds got unruly.

"Not having any contingency plans for the extra 10,000 people that the network expected to arrive borders on irresponsible and incompetent management of the situation at best to criminal negligence and endangerment leading to the loss of life at worst," the report said.

Corpus also deplored the act by ABS-CBN to lure its network viewers to watch the game show with promises of prizes.