Going to the dogs - Sketches

I go on vacation for a week and what's the news from the Philippines? Bombers strike at the Glorietta mall and Camp Crame, headquarters of the Philippine National Police. The bombings continue in Mindanao, killing nearly a dozen people. The peso approaches 42 to the dollar. Even the heavens refuse to behave. "Biring" floods Metro Manila and turns Valenzuela into Waterworld.

In the States the Americans were more concerned about the computer virus made in the Philippines called the Love Bug. There was some mention of the hostage situation in Mindanao (no breakthrough).

On my first day back at work SM Megamall was bombed. Will all this excitement never end?

A red carpet was rolled out at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Friday night when I arrived from the United States. The red carpet was for President Erap, whose visit to China was cut short by a day because of disaster upon disaster during his absence.

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The bombings in Metro Manila have raised several conspiracy theories. Take your pick:

* President Erap's enemies are out to destabilize his administration. The official line yesterday was that rightist groups with a political agenda, who were also involved in the anti-Charter change rallies last year, perpetrated the bombings. Did someone say Fidel Ramos?

* It's the handiwork of the Alex Boncayao Brigade, in connivance with Director General Panfilo Lacson (the ABB's contact for peace talks with the government), to lay the groundwork for martial law, or at least for the postponement of the 2001 elections where opposition members are expected to make a clean sweep and gain control of Congress. The martial law scenario was denied by President Erap yesterday.

* It's the handiwork of Lacson's enemies who are out to embarrass him.

* Muslim terrorists are in Metro Manila. Really.

Who has the most to gain from these bombings? In this chaotic country, everyone is suspect. Take your pick.

Fortunately, Pinoys aren't easy to terrorize. My kid brother swears he's not shying away from the Glorietta. And my elder brother, upon learning that a bomb had exploded at SM Megamall, rushed to the mall to join the swarm of uzis or kibitzers.

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Remember the bus bombings in the previous administration? The bombs went off at the height of efforts to amend the Constitution. Investigation pointed to a ranking military official as the likely mastermind, but he was untouchable, and to this day remains untouchable in his job as an intelligence officer.

Before the attack at Camp Crame, the last bombing by rocket-propelled grenade targeted the Department of Energy. The ABB claimed responsibility for the bombing, as it owned up to a previous grenade attack on the Makati headquarters of Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. All three attacks were obviously not meant to kill but merely to instill fear.

The bombs at the Glorietta and Megamall, no matter how crudely fashioned, were clearly put together by people with knowledge of bomb-making. The Megamall bomb, with the explosives in plastic cups wrapped in transparent plastic, was set off with an electric pulse through one National Ultra Heavy Duty battery and an ordinary 1.5-volt Eveready battery.

Communists usually fire rocket-propelled grenades or assassinate at close range. Islamic terrorists, on the other hand, aim for maximum mayhem: the more mangled bodies, the better, which isn't the case in these bombings. That leaves military and police bomb experts, and civilian destabilizers. Who is ruthless enough to risk civilian casualties?

No cause or ideology warrants such violent disruption of life in these islands. We have enough problems. Whoever is responsible for these bombings must be hanged by their cojones and paraded across the country, to be constantly pelted with used Eveready batteries.

And if there is truly a political agenda in these terrorist attacks, government intelligence agents who failed to detect the alleged destabilization plot must be hanged together with the bombers. What happened to the multimillion-peso intelligence fund? What happened to the bugging devices? Where are the spooks when you need them?

Let's hope the K-9 corps will do better in detecting those bombs. This country has gone to the dogs.