Even more interesting. One’s gotta ask: Where is the outrage? Last time I’ve seen what looked like (or what was spun as) collective Pinoy public anger was early this year at the height of the various moronic street protests that erupted as a result of Jun Lozada’s little tale. Not only did we get the impression that the Average Pinoy Schmoe was hopping mad, up in arms, and ready once again to “face the tanks”, we also got the impression that our politicians were “getting involved” in the circus for the greater good of the Republic.

Today, we have 800 dead in a sea disaster involving a Taipan-run enterprise that happens to own four other ships that put the Philippines on the peacetime disaster map over the last 20 years. The 1987 sinking of the Sulpicio-owned MV Doña Paz is the worst peacetime maritime disaster in history. It’s ironic that Pinoys continuously and pathetically scrounge around for little snippets of trivia to put our “race” at the top of various lists of stuff when this bit of trivia has been sitting right under our noses (or swept under the radar of our collective awareness) for the last 20 years.

Galing Pinoy nga naman talaga.

And while we see lots of heart-wrenching footage of the wailing families of victims, what we DON’T see is a commensurate collective anger that befits the magnitude of the tragedy among those who are not directly affected by all this.

In various acts to denounce “great crimes against Filipinos” (ouch!) Ateneans and Makati businessmen are quick to march the streets of Manila, gangs of nuns surround tanks and drama cretins, and bishops and priests summarily excommunicate or presume to recommend damnation to certain “disagreeable” individuals. When these “great crimes” are perceived, the usual ringleaders fire up their PR machineries and incite “unity walks”, organise “genuine oppositions”, televise “masses of reconciliation”, and set up million-peso-a-month “senate inquiries”. When these “great crimes” are committed, cybserspace is ablaze with fiery blogs entries and comments, online petitions are set up, and photshopped parodies and effigies of politicians fill our PC and celphone inboxes.

Indeed, we are even willing to go to the extent of extra-legal and/or extra-constitutional means to exact”justice” whenever a Jun Lozada comes out of the woodwork to make millions for ABS-CBN. Horrors!

Well, folks, the spectre of 800 dead in a preventable disaster is staring us in the face TODAY. We see outrage amongst those who are directly affected. But among those who would otherwise — at the drop of a hat — dance the ocho-ocho in the streets of Manila over a business transaction they hardly understand and are hardly affected by, we see ZILCH.

Between a “business transaction” that takes a 5,000-word essay to describe why the Average Pinoy Schmoe is affected, and a 20-year SERIES of sea tragedies that forever took away the sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers of tens of thousands of Average Pinoy Schmoes, it is a bit telling of our society that the earlier OVERWHELMINGLY trumps the latter in an exercise of inciting and SUSTAINING collective public outrage.

Next time yet another moronic street fiesta is incited and organised by the usual ringleaders in Edsa or Ayala around yet another cretin like Jun Lozada, let us pause to think about the day 800 people died and these same ringleaders remained silent.

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