The botched Luneta hostage-taking incident was undoubtedly one of the worst tragedies that ever happened to this country. Filipinos in general were aghast and mad at what happened. Like Hong Kong’s top man, Mr. Tsang, and his citizens, we too also wanted a swift justice.
While issuing a travel ban (a.k.a. “Black Alert”) is HK’s call, it doesn’t mean that the Philippines is in the brink of collapse, that we’re a terrorist-infested territory. I just find it unacceptable that we share the ranks of Somalia and Iraq, we haven’t reach that mark yet. It is true that parts of Mindanao have been war-torn for decades, but most of these are results of clashing ideologies of people wanting change, of rebels with causes. And to date, we now have extremists infiltrating their ranks, government-sanctioned warlords (like the Ampatuans) and a police force that sorely lacks training. But these are issues all functioning governments in the world would like to address and resolve immediately. These are isolated cases that do not paralyze the lives of the rest of us in this sunny part of the world. We still can move freely – businesses in all forms likeForex training seminars, manang’s sari-sari store, and pirated dvd’s thrive, our babies grow, our students graduate, more families and friendships are formed and people can say whatever they want to say without getting shot, skinned or beheaded.
Let me end with this: Lightning could always strike anywhere – from Pentagon to the remotest parts of the world. Nothing in this world is really that secure. Airplanes crash. We get bombed. People die.
