A ‘horrifying, traumatizing’ wait

Isaw a post on social media wherein a netizen recounted her “horrifying and traumatic experience at TOPS.” According to the netizen, she and her companions arrived at the newly reopened tourist attraction in Barangay Busay, Cebu City at 11:30 p.m. on board a bus from the IT Park.

She didn’t specify the date because it allegedly took her days to recover from the trauma.

She said that a staff at Tops collected P200 from each of them as payment for the entrance and the round trip bus ride. They were reminded to keep the ticket for the ride back down.

When they decided that it was time to leave, the time was around 1 a.m. She said they and some other visitors formed a line while waiting for the bus to pick them up.

The netizen said the last bus to pick up visitors was around 2 a.m. After that they waited, she said.

The temperature started to drop and it began to rain, and they got wet because the roof at the waiting area was in need of repair, she added.

She lamented that the staff didn’t even bother to provide them with proper shelter.

They were “rescued” by barangay officials and police around 7 a.m.

They asked the staff for a refund and were turned down because there was no one from management. The netizen said she was forced to share her experience on social media after the TOPS management ignored her messages. No explanation and no apology, she said.

And the netizen is right. The management has a lot of explaining to do.

In her postscript, she wrote: “So, stop victim blaming !! !! It was not in our intention to experience this.” But “horrifying” and “traumatic”? Seriously? Perhaps the netizen should talk to relatives of the victims of the Maco landslide for starters.