IN FLEEING DEATH THEY PERISHED

Like rats they scampered,
scampered for a few months' lease on life --
and scores were stopped by death on the tracks.
In the rush for a few months' worth of human life,
scores were trampled like mice.
They met the death they sought to defy.
And this is how things have become
in this country of our afflictions:
to simply last the day through has become
a death-bringing ordeal,
and in the quest to flee this death
and taste the life of men
there are not a few who would face even
the danger of dying like mice.

In memory of those who, in the hopes of getting tickets to qualify as contestants in the "Pera o Bayong" contest of the ABS-CBN game show Wowowee, perished in a Feb. 3, 2006 stampede at the ULTRA