In a Perfect World...

In a perfect world there would be neither calamities nor accidents.  The government would be a  be able to maintain the roads and the rain, no matter the volume/density and frequency would not result in flooding.

In a less than perfect world, there would be minor flooding, the government would always be there to inform the public of such disturbances and the people would have enough common sense to avoid flooded areas.

But this is the REAL WORLD and so these things happen...

And in the real world, people will not accept their mistakes.  They would instead blame the government!  Maybe Christopher Lao was watching this YouTube video before the incident but forgot that he was not driving Bus 62!

Before we go further, we just would like to say that we are not condemning Christopher Lao as a person.  In fact we would like to believe that what happened was the result of an unfortunate series of events resulting from the stress of the floods and law school, lack of knowledge of the roadway and a minor lapse in judgement.

The support he received from his circle of friends, his community and even the UP College of Law has led us to believe that Christopher Lao was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.  To add insult to injury, the GMA News reporter was in the right place at the right time!  However, unfortunately for the reporter, we don't even know his name!

The incident brought Mr. Lao instant fame, though not in the good way.  A Facebook fan page was established and hit more than 40,000 likes in less than 48-hours!

We agree with UP College of Law Dean, Atty. Marvic Leonen that the conclusions made by most people in Facebook and Twitter are going over the top.  If UP is proud of him even after this incident then he must be a good person.

As Dean Leonen says, there must be a distinction made between the person and the incident.  In this light, we would like to ask the UP College of Law if they are proud of how Christopher Lao reacted to the incident?

From Un Worthy

We have to admit making stupid mistakes ourselves.  But we don't blame other people for the mistakes we've made.  If the UP College of Law is proud of how Mr. Lao handled the situation, then something is terribly wrong with them.  Those characteristics shown by Mr. Lao are not the characteristics one would look for in a Lawyer, in fact those are the characteristics that drag the legal profession through the dirt and give lawyers infamy for being corrupt and arrogant people.

In Mr. Lao's defense, in a perfect world the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the people in the area should have made signs informing travelers that the road cannot be traversed.  But Mr. Lao should have known that he was not living in a perfect world, and that the MMDA would not be able to do so.

What really pissed people and made people react to the incident was not because he made the mistake of "floating" down the road but his reaction after the incident.  Why blame others?  Christopher should have just smiled and laughed, said while laughing that "I didn't know the flood was that high.  Now I Know!"

People would have laughed with him, instead of laughing at him.  Then again, everything is easier to decide on hindsight is it not? What about you, what would you have done?

If we were Christopher Lao, we'd use this opportunity to make it big in Philippine showbiz as the ultimate villain!  Seriously though, Mr. Lao should just find a little humility to laugh about the entire incident and he should be fine.  All of these will be forgotten as soon as something else catches the fancy of the people... right?