Caught in the madness, chaos before stampede

JAKARTA – Now it can be told. The Philippine wushu team and its supporters found their way out of the cavernous Gelora Bung Karno Stadium just in time to avoid being engulfed by a great inrush of thousands all aching to watch the football finale between the home team versus Malaysia Monday night.

The Filipino sportswriters, who needed to file their reports on the exploits of Team Phl on wushu, were not as lucky, caught by the rushing crowd, coming from all directions even as the stadium was packed hours before the match.

After fighting to a 1-1 count in regulation, the Malaysian beat the Indons, 4-3, in the penalty shootout for the hotly-disputed football championship here.

The whole place was chaotic, and one could sense danger with the lack of police, marshals and ushers.

The stadium, with a capacity of 88,000, and the streets around it were terribly jammed, and it’s no wonder a stampede happened, killing two people in the tragedy topping many problems that spoiled the 26th SEA Games.

POC first vice president Manny Lopez apologized to the wushu contingent profusely as he made it to the wushu playing venue (the Senayon Tennis Indoor Court inside the sprawling Bung Karno Complex) with the competitions over due to the traffic gridlock around Senayan area.

“Terible ang tao (The crowd was so huge),” said Lopez in amazement.

Myanmar and Vietnam were still preparing for their bronze-medal game then.

Traffic halted to a full stop by the time the Myanmar-Vietnam tiff was over since parking spaces inside the complex and the streets around it were filled, and there’s still the heavy rush of the Indonesian football fanatics.

The Filipino sportswriters took over an hour walking through the thick crowd inside the complex, through a long line of vehicles that turned the streets into a virtual parking area and against a heavy stream of people on the sidewalks to get some breathing space.

There were those atop trucks playing drums, singing and chanting, and motor-riding tandems waving Indonesian flags.

It was quite an experience for the Filipino scribes that had them soaking in sweat and punished by the strong fumes of stalled vehicles and the pungent cigarette smoke blown by the Indonesians.

Their ordeal didn’t end there. They had to walk and wait long to get a ride back to their hotels.

Amazing was the Indonesians’ passion for the game that they would die to watch this game that went to Malaysia in the end.

Back home in the Philippines, the closest that can be compared to this football madness is a Manny Pacquiao fight.

Away from the Senayan, the Indonesians, at home or in any establishment, were glued on TV watching the match.

The Indonesians did emerge the runaway overall champion in the Games but still went home disappointed, losing the gold medal that mattered most to them.