The fascination with Mr. Lao began when a Facebook video went viral. The video is merely a two-minute clip but the interest it sparked from netizens grew exponentially in only a small amount of time. It’s a snippet from the GMA-7 news show 24 Oras which showed an interview of an extremely frustrated Mr. Lao after his car mishap. Heavy rains brought by the August monsoons have rendered some parts of the metro extremely flooded, therefore uncrossable through usual land transportation means. In the said clip, it showed how Mr. Lao dared to cross an extremely-flooded part of Mother Ignacia Street in Quezon Avenue while inside his car. What he didn’t anticipate was how deep the waters were and seeing as his small vehicle doesn’t have a built-in floatation device, buoyancy got the best of him and made the car float helplessly. A news crew happened to be on the other side of the street and was able to capture the whole incident on National TV. A few good Samaritans pushed the car safely to land and the news crew was able to get an interview from the obviously flustered driver. When asked why he decided to cross into such dangerous waters, Christopher Lao blamed the MMDA for not putting precautionary signs or at least a roadblock to warn motorists of the traffic hazard. When asked again by the reporter why he still decided to cross the waist-high flood, Mr. Lao, obviously infuriated, retaliated that nobody told him about it and even insinuated that the news crew and the other motorists were at fault.(“Really, did you guys even tell me?...Nobody even stopped, nobody informed. It’s like people were waiting for somebody to just do that”). Feeling defensive, the reported asked Hindi mo ba narealize na baka malalim? (Did you not realize that the water could be deep?) to which Mr. Lao scoffed with Bakit ako? Di ba? Dapat i-inform... (Why me? I should’ve been informed...).
I saw the video on TV and was beyond disbelief how this guy can have the audacity to blame others of his own stupidity. I am no driver and I don’t own a car, but when you see that nobody is crossing a heavily flooded road, and some vehicles even stop at its brink, don’t you think that you have to stop and assess the situation as well? Why are these cars stopping? Why is no one crossing the road? We don't need a hero in this case. Common sense will dictate that since no one crossing the flooded waters, then it must be dangerous. If it’s dangerous then it must be bad. And also, pointing fingers at others will not take the blame away from you. It will not make you feel less stupid because deep inside you know, you too are at fault. You’re the one behind the steering wheel not “them” and certainly not the MMDA. It was still your decision, you acted on your own wishes. Did anyone force you to do that? Did anyone say Hey Lao! Can you cross it so that we can know how deep it is? No. So, Mr. Lao blaming others for what happened is idiotic.
Granted, the two minutes we saw on TV was not Mr. Lao’s finest. In my opinion, the incident could have been easily forgiven and forgotten had Mr. Lao not blamed others for his lapse in judgment. Speaking of lapses in judgment, don't we think that we are all guilty of this? (even the ex-president and the CBCP admitted to having episodes of it, insert sarcastic cough) It is common human nature to blame. We all know it. We all do it on some psychological degree. It’s an ugly, ugly human flaw but we are all guilty of it one way or another. The only difference is that, our blaming others is not caught on national TV all the time (say except for Gloria and CBCP, but that’s a whole different story). I can understand the frustration Mr. Lao felt when he was being interviewed. After all, he was caught with his pants down in his moment of shame. Certainly nobody wants to let the world see that if it happens on their own expense. It’s just how humans are. We value or self-esteem and in a small way, we also value how we are perceived by others. Let me just say that I am in no way defending him. I still think he is at fault. I’m saying that I understand why he did it (blamed others) but I don’t necessarily think it was the right thing to do. I also think that he has a valid point in the sense that the road should have been blocked or at least there should have been a warning. But since there were none, we can still safely conclude that he was partly responsible for his own misfortune.
What I don’t understand even more here, is how people can create fan page celebrating someone’s moment of stupidity. After stumbling upon the link, I was surprised to see that it had 6000 likes. How it got to that number is beyond me. But what’s even more surprising is, how the number of people who liked it doubled in just a matter of hours. As of this writing the total number of fans reached 27,000. And the news hasn’t been more than a day old, mind you. One can safely assume that this number will still continue to rise. Checking the comments, it is saddening to see that for some people it is not enough to laugh at Mr. Lao’s face by liking the page, some even went far as to attack him personally and call him names pointing his mishap on his ethnicity. That is just wrong. I mean yes, what he did was stupid no doubt but do we really know this person well enough to judge him and throw below-the-belt comments? I just think it’s wrong for people to make a caricature of someone based on his one moment of stupidity. I’m not washing my hands clean and I admit that I’ve had my fare share of laughs when I saw the video. But that’s just it. It was funny, because it showed someone acting stupidly. We have to get over with it. And we have to draw the line at some point.
In the end, I’d like to say that what Mr. Lao did was undeniably stupid but it’s wrong to say that he is a stupid person. We can never judge the entirety of someone based on two minutes. And we have no right to do so. I’m sure he has a lot of good qualities and if the rumors are true that he is a UP Law student, I’m sure he is a smart guy in general. It just so happens that we didn’t catch him in his finest hour. And that also happens to even the best of us. If you ask me, what is more stupid is how people can spare a moment of their precious life, make a freakshow fanpage of someone’s mishap and make others like it too as if it’s a good thing. I mean seriously, a fan page? Seeing as the meaning of the word “fan” is misconstrued in this particular case, I guess it shows how “stupid” these people are as well. Think, who is dumber, the person committing the stupid act, or the person who “likes” it?
And as for Mr. Christopher Lao, you have been informed.
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