Explosion in Congress

Explosion in Congress

(Babble On for the Sunstar Davao, November 16, 2007)

It is said that April is the cruelest month. For the victims of the latest explosion in our country, November may be the cruelest month instead. Cruelty rained down in Congress on Tuesday night, just as the session ended and congressmen and their staffers were leaving. A bomb exploded at the South Lobby of the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City.

The devastation was swift and unexpected. It killed Basilan Representative Wahab Akbar and the driver of Gabriella Representative Luzviminda Calolot-Ilagan, who was herself injured (Rep. Ilagan is an Ateneo de Davao University graduate and former faculty member of its Humanities Division). Several others were also wounded, left dazed, bloodied and walking around in shock. They never knew what hit them.

With this second explosion happening so soon after Glorietta 2, comparisons between the Philippines and Pakistan or Iraq are beginning to crop up. In those countries explosions occur on a nearly daily basis, and chaos reigns. Echoes of 9-11 come to mind as well.

But that was Pakistan and Iraq and New York. This is the Philippines. Not just any area of the Philippines, but the home of one of the three branches of government, the Legislature. One member of that body was even killed, and others wounded, by that explosion.

If even government is not safe, what more for the rest of us mere mortals?

More questions come to mind and play on everyone’s lips: who did this? Why? Was it terrorists? Was it a ploy to distract from the other political troubles in the country? Why here and why now?

At this time, these are questions without answers.

These questions do bring us to a new and startling conclusion: No place is safe anymore. Horrible killers are in the country and we’ve already seen their handiwork. We’ve seen malls and airports and now even Congress explode. We’ve seen bodies mangled, people killed, and victims suffer.

For whatever reason, terror is striking the heart of the Philippines. And all we can do for now is wonder at this tragedy, curse the audacity of the perpetrators, pray for the souls of the dead, and hope that justice will come crashing down on the heads of those who did this.

For our country has now been twisted into a strange and unknown shape by explosions and terror. The promise of our country’s economic improvement has been clouded by smoke, fear and explosions.

“It was a very huge explosion,” said Congressman Joel Villanueva, “we are stunned.”

And so is the rest of the Philippines.