EDITORIAL – Deadly gifts

’Tis the season for giving, and no global economic slowdown can stop the exchange of gifts and greeting cards during the Yuletide season. Before opening those gifts and letters, however, people should heed a recent warning from the Philippine Postal Office. After all, it has also been a long season of terror, and unlike Yuletide, this season isn’t about to pass anytime soon.

Last year people worried about anthrax spores in the mail. It wasn’t the handiwork of an ordinary prankster; several victims died, and it takes rare expertise to develop and handle safely the deadly strain of anthrax bacterium. There has been no anthrax attacks for many months, but the fact that the perpetrator was never caught is cause for worry. American investigators suspect the anthrax sender is in the United States, although some tainted mail was traced to Malaysia.

Then there are the bombers. It seems the ranks of individuals skilled in bomb-making are growing. No sooner had the Postal Office given the public tips on how to detect explosive mail and parcels, than a nine-year-old girl in Ilocos Sur was blasted to kingdom come and three other members of her family wounded Monday when they opened a present meant for the poor girl’s pastor father.

Last week, a letter bomb was deli-vered to the Myanmar Embassy in Manila which authorities said was appa-rently sent all the way from Thailand, special delivery. The envelope, which had a Thai postmark, contained an electronic greeting card that was meant to play music – possibly harps of angels in heaven since the card was rigged with a blasting device. Luckily, bomb experts dismantled the letter bomb before anyone could get killed.

Death could even be lurking in something so innocent as a can of milk, which the family of a Light Railway Transit narrowly evaded when he took home to Camarines Sur an unclaimed box of powdered milk left at the station.

Are we getting paranoid? Possibly. But the world faces a different threat that requires new responses. Sometimes the responses may seem paranoid or smack of overkill, but when it comes to public safety, it’s better to err on the side of caution. Terrorists have struck and could very well strike again, planning their next move over queso de bola.