EDITORIAL - Crackpot impact

Are you scared yet? The British have been warned against traveling to the Philippines. Similar travel bans were issued months ago by the United States and Japan. But those travel advisories were not connected to the recent bomb scares in Metro Manila, Mindanao and Cebu City. And Filipinos themselves, used to the constant threats of being mugged or kidnapped, appear to be shrugging off the bomb scares.

This is one of the strangest bomb scare sprees ever. The perpetrators clearly know their business. Each planted explosive could go off but for one missing item: a triggering device. Whoever planted those bombs did not intend to set them off. The bomb scares have naturally drawn public attention, but for what? A heretofore unheard of group calling itself the Indigenous People’s Federal State Army has claimed responsibility and has threatened to plant more bombs. The IPFSA is purportedly espousing a federal system for indigenous groups, Christians and Muslims. Does this cause really warrant terrorist tactics?

The President’s spokesman has condemned the scares as "desperate acts" meant to achieve "crackpot impact." Cops are said to be eyeing renegades of the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. You can’t blame people, however, for suspecting that the bombs are being planted by government agents themselves, for some twisted reason that still remains to be fathomed. Some groups are again seeing the specter of martial law. Others are linking the bomb scares to the return of American troops to the Philippines.

There is, of course, the very real threat that one of these days another bomb will be planted and it will go off. It’s been just 15 months since more than 20 people were killed in simultaneous bomb attacks in Metro Manila. The group responsible for those attacks has not yet been completely neutralized.

They may be intended for crackpot impact, but the recent bomb scares and the consequent speculations aren’t helping the nation, which is still trying to live down its image as Asia’s kidnapping capital. The only way to end the instability is by catching those planting the bombs as quickly as possible. And please, no fall guys.