Do you still remember the time when you hear Willie Revillame sings
“Wowoweesinong di mawiwili, dahilsa
game na to ay di ka magsisisi.Wowowee panalo
ang marami, pagkat walang talo sa wowowee.” While eating your lunch. If yes, then you are
one of the millions of people who watched the phenomenal noon time show that
almost put eat bulaga out of their throne as the number one noon time show.
Wowowee is the reason why Willie Revillame have billions in his bank account.
But wowowee is not just about fun and games. Wowowee faced a lot of
controversies during its reign in the afternoon slot of ABS-CBN, there’s this
issue about the “Dayaan” during one of the show’s game and of course, the most
controversial and the most shocking crisis for wowowee, the Ultra Stampede. In
the morning Feb. 4 2006 before the celebration of Wowowee’s anniversary starts,
a stampede happened and claimed 78 innocents’ lives. Now let us remember the
stories regarding the “ultra stampede”.
The reason
Before the day of Feb. 4, Willie announce that he the
attendees of their anniversary show in Ultra will get a chance to win cash
prize it they will be able to acquire ticket for the event. When the organizers started giving ticket at around 6 a.m. the people who waited for days rushed to
get one and that is when the stampede broke out. We can say that the urge to
get a ticket to have a chance for those luscious rewards is one of the reasons
why the stampede broke out. The local authorities weren't able to handle the
incident. The desire to have instant cash and to ease the poverty that most of
the people who fall in line for the ticket experienced is also one of the
reasons why the stampede broke out.
The victims
78 people lose their lives because of the incident. One
of the victim of the stampede is a Ilonga working as a household helper in
Tanay, Rizal. Ofelia
Casipe is a Bingawan, Iloilo native. The anniversary of Wowowee was supposed to
be her birthday present for herself. Ofelia asked her employer’s permission to
go to the wowowee and because her employer knows that Ofelia is a big fan of
Wowowee, they allow her to go. Ofelia went with her friends and they fall in
line in ultra a day before February 4.
There are 73 other that lost their lives in a preventable tragedy.
The aftermath
In 2010, DOJ in a resolution states that Willie
Revillame is no liable with what happened in ultra. During our research, all of
the victims that we are able to talk to was not able to comment regarding the
incident because of the contract clause that they need to follow. People that
lost their lives during the incident will never get their lives back. Justice
seems in the country seems to side with the wealthy and privilege. Those who are
experience keep on experiencing injustice and hunger.
If you were curious on what happened to this controversial accident, you may check out this Video:
