Christopher Lao: A view of our messed up mentality

Who would want to be in this guy's shoes?

It's disappointing how Christopher Lao's distress generated criticism from all over the country. It isn't fair for him and it isn't fair for us. It reflects how messed up our society's mentality is. That instead of showing sympathy for someone who just damaged his car, was interrogated impromptu by the media and was victimized by the city's flood, he was laughed at and humiliated by thousands of people online instead.

An article was released by one of his block mates a few days after the incident explaining Chris' situation. According to the article, Chris is from Mindanao which explains his lack of familiarity with the streets here in Manila. He was on his way to fetch his daughter because his wife was stranded in the office because of the flood. He's also currently busy studying for the Bar exams. Aside from that, he just learned how to drive when he went to law school. He's not a pro as a driver but he braved the flooded streets for his wife and his daughter. And after being humiliated online by thousands of netizens, he even issued an apology for criticizing everybody but himself for what happened. According to the people who know him, he's not arrogant at all. He's in fact low key despite being brilliant academically.

He's just a victim. Most of his critics just joined the bandwagon without even thinking. That twisted mentality is what pulls the rest of us down. Bakit nga ba tayo nanghuhusga ng taong wala namang ginawa saatin? The guy was in distress and was most probably in panic when media interviewed him. He didn't harm anyone. Sure, he wasn't good looking enough to get the sympathy of the viewers. So, he became the laughing stock instead. He might have used the wrong words in expressing his anguish about the terrible situation that he's going through. But he's just like most of us. We all make mistakes and we sometimes say the wrong words. We all go through bad days. We're just lucky that the media failed to capture those bad days we had.

The bottom line is that we don't need to participate in this modern day gossip. Let's focus our energy on something more relevant. Christopher Lao was right when he pointed out that there has to be signs on streets where it's flooded. He also had the right to demand to be informed. It's our right. We must not just accept what we got accustomed to in the streets. There's still a lot that has to be changed and improved out there. Christopher Lao was just brave enough to speak out.