The stampede news saddened me. Every filipino mourns. My deepest sympathy to the family of those who have died in the stampede. A prayer is the only thing I can do to offer as of this moment. This is not the time to put the blame on anybody but to focus on the things that need to be done. =(
TV network cancels anniversary celebration of noontime show
First posted 12:26pm (Mla time) Feb 04, 2006
INQ7.net, Agence France-Presse
(UPDATE) ABS-CBN Network has cancelled the first anniversary celebration of its noontime show after over 70 people were killed and scores were injured in a stampede at the stadium where the program was to be held.
Charo Santos-Concio, a top executive of the television station, and "Wowowee" host Willie Revillame made the announcement in a brief telecast of the program, hours after the tragedy at the Philsports arena, previously known as ULTRA, in Pasig City early Saturday.
Revillame made a brief appearance inside the stadium, where thousands of people were already gathered, to apologize for the accident and condole with the families of the victims.
Revillame was in tears as he appealed to the audience to understand the decision by the station to postpone the celebration.
Earlier on Saturday, Revillame said he wanted the show to go on.
Thousands of people from poor communities had been lining up to get a seat inside the Ultra Stadium in eastern Manila for the noontime show when the stampede occurred at dawn.
The show offers a one million-peso top prize, attracting people from poor areas of Manila and far-flung provincial areas.
Hours later, thousands of surviving fans were still queuing for the show, despite the deadly stampede, waiting to enter the stadium.
"We only wanted to make these people happy and to help the poor," Revillame said, breaking down during an interview aired by the station immediately after the tragedy.
"I want the show to go on. I can't stop this. The people have suffered enough." He also appealed to fans who were still at home to refrain from going to the stadium.
He said Saturday's show would mark the first anniversary of the program, and that the show was offering two top prizes of one million pesos each -- a fortune to the 40 percent of Filipinos who live on two dollars a day or less.
Revillame said the station was used to having up to 5,000 people line up outside the studio gates on the nights before the weekend program, but that it had never before hosted the show at the Ultra stadium.
"Some would come from far-flung places, groups of families who would hire one mini-bus and agree to split the prize if one of them won," he added.
Revillame said he had made it a point to stage the game shows at other provincial centers several times during the past year. "We would pick places where the poor are hard-up," he added.
"This is a program that intends to help Filipinos, especially the poor," he said.
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74 people died, mostly were elderly women
nearly 400 injured
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