Despite all the well-publicized problems that Congressman Alan Peter Cayetano and his Southeast Asian Games organizing committee have faced since last week in pulling the games together, we’re sure that they’re doing their best to solve– good god, they’ve put two toilets in one stall.
A video posted to Facebook yesterday by ABS-CBN News showed the toilet twinsies ensconced within a single cubicle in a restroom of the Rizal Memorial Stadium, one of the venues for the games. Amid numerous recent reports of transportation snags, uncompleted facilities, and other apparent instances of poor foresight on the part of organizers, the divider-less toilets were just another hint of how hurried and haphazard the Philippines’ preparations were for the major sporting meet.
Read: Hunger Games: Singapore demands ‘urgent, immediate attention’ over lack of halal food at SEA Games
(The games are slated to officially start on Nov. 30, so while we’re well aware of the camaraderie between teammates and all that, they still better put a wall between those toilets, like, STAT.)
Check out the video below, which has been shared almost 3,300 times and viewed more than 518,000 times since it was posted.
While some netizens pointed to toilet-gate as evidence of just how incompetent the SEA Games organizers are, others accused ABS-CBN News of trying to unfairly incite hate for the government by posting the video.
One Alvin Riolo wrote, “All you show are negative things to get people mad. People easily believe everything these days. Manipulative news casting.”
Read: All Apologies: Cayetano says sorry to athletes as snafus plague lead-up to SEA Games
People are certainly entitled to their opinions, of course, and we’re not here to comment on the motives of ABS-CBN, but there have been a lot of not-so-great revelations cropping up over the past few days, all pointing to the possibility that the event is shaping up to be, in more ways than one, something of a s**t-show.
Speaking of which, here’s another.
Photos widely shared on social media yesterday showed that the media room at the stadium is also far from done, currently resembling more of an animal pen than a press pen. With its unpainted cinder blocks, rickety-looking scaffolding still standing around the perimeter, and a forlorn mini Philippine flag jauntily stuck atop what appears to be some kind of large, incomplete dais, the sight prompted one journalist to call the facility “a writer’s gulag.”
Ruang konferensi pers cabang olahraga sepak bola di SEA Games 2019 hari ini.
Mengenaskan.
📷: Dipta Wahyu/Jawa Pos pic.twitter.com/ax5ZLfxaAf
— A. Ainur Rohman (@ainurohman) November 25, 2019
While we’re on the subject of the press, GMA News reporter Raffy Tima yesterday tweeted a copy of the press ID that he was given for the games, which identified him as “Mariz Tima.” (For the unaware, Tima is married to another journalist named Mariz Umali.)
“Hello Phisgoc, who owns this ID?” he tweeted to the games’ organizers. “Is it for me or for @marizumali? Asking for a friend. PS. I hope you could still allow me to cover [the games].”
Hello Phisgoc, kaninong ID po ito? Sa akin o kay @marizumali? Asking for a friend 🤣 P.S. Sana po papasukin niyo pa rin kami para mag-cover. 😄 pic.twitter.com/y5HTLLb5RQ
— Raffy Tima (@raffytima) November 25, 2019
Meanwhile, with all the problems hounding the games, it may come as no surprise that the hashtags #SEAGames2019fail and #SEAGamesfail are currently trending on Twitter.
What should be done to save the Games? Tell us by leaving a comment below or tweeting to @CoconutsManila.
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