Managing a Crisis

Is'nt odd that a mere explosion could cause the President of the Republic, his chief of the entire 144,000 police force and his Interior secretary to go to the explosion site and manage what they termed as an "extraordinary situation"? What could be just a gas explosion or some what-have-you turned into a national topic of discussion last night when even the very head of the Republic was there at Ground Zero managing what others might term as a mere situation? What prompted such a high-caliber team to manage an issue which any Marcomm or PR crisis guy of Ayala could easily manage?

This pricked my curiosity when I watched last night's coverage of this explosion at Two Serendra at the Global City. Imagine, the Interior secretary speaking for and on behalf of Ayala, the developer of Two Serendra. More odd is the fact that the very head of the police force and the very Chief Executive of the land were there to tell the public that everything is under control.

With such a high-caliber team asking us to believe that "everything is under control" is suspicious, much less, alarming.

I believe this administration is anticipating something and the President and his security men are in a "crisis mode". Probably, there is some intelligence report submitted to the President foretelling of such situations. That explains why the President was there managing an issue which a mere PR manager could very well manage alone.

Worse, Two Serendra is not even a government property---it is an enclave of the rich. Imagine, the very head of the DILG speaking for and on behalf of residents of Two Serendra, as if he has a stake, a big stake into it.

There are much worse situations happening in the provinces and even in urban areas near the President's reach, yet, he rarely is seen managing such situations. When thousands of houses went up in smoke somewhere in Tondo, do you see the President managing the fire? No.

When a family is massacred somewhere in Antipolo or Cavite, do you see the President and the Interior secretary and even the head of the police force, together, at one time, and asking the Public not to speculate about the cause of the incident and just lay low?

Last night was indeed, such an odd night, very interesting. That explosion could probably be just a gas leak explosion caused by faulty cooking. Yet, because the people involved were rich, that probably prompted the very head of this Republic to go and manage Ground Zero. Whoa.