A pleasant trip overshadowed by tragedy

Last weekend my family left Manila to head to Cagayan de Oro to attend the wedding of my wife’s niece Tessa, where Monique was a principal sponsor. It was a whole family affair with both my daughter and even our granddaughter being part of the wedding entourage.  I must  admit it was a pleasant respite from the hustle and bustle of Manila, especially the polluted air and the endless traffic that makes blood pressure rise and patience fall.

Cagayan de Oro is a special place for our family. It’s where Monique’s family is from and a place we love to visit. We’ve been there countless times, even about four years ago just after typhoon Sendong had ravaged the island city. At that time we were surrounded by fallen trees, destroyed homes, and many families who had lost loved ones. It was a truly tragic circumstance of nature. But the province and its people were resilient and moved on and rose again.

And we definitely did see those remarkable changes during this trip. The city has truly risen from the ashes. There were no signs of what the residents had been through. Everything was back to normal and in some instances, even better. If you had been there years ago, you would have noticed the dramatic change the city has undergone in just a short period of time. Even the downtown area is bustling and alive once again. It’s heart warming to see what the residents have done to come back from their tragedy.

One of the new things I could not help but notice is the Laguindingan Airport when we arrived. The new airport showcased a better building, tunnels to and from the planes, and newer facilities. However, one of the problems of the airport is that while they have increased the terminal fee to P200 per passenger, not all of the necessary amenities are in place to make the terminal fully functional. These include runway lights and radar system for the towers.

As such, the terminal cannot accept flights landing or leaving when natural light (sunlight) is no longer sufficient. This means that flights cannot leave or land any time after 5 p.m. or earlier if the skies are very dark. And because a lot of the airlines do turnaround flights (same plane flying back and forth to Manila), the late afternoon flights get canceled due to “lack of lights.” That’s what happened to us, as we were booked on a late afternoon flight home. I have to admit; we were all mildly surprised at the reason. It was the first time I have heard that one.

And this was not the first time it had happened. Just the day before, the same thing happened to passengers and they were stranded in the airport as well. It was truly an inconvenience as there are no hotels or rest houses anywhere near the new airport and people ended up scrambling for a ride back into the city or a place to stay for the night. Luckily for us, through some scrambling we were able to get transferred onto another airline that was still able to leave the city.

Despite that setback, it was overall a truly enjoyable trip. And as I mentioned before, our family loves Cagayan de Oro. This is why it was such a heartbreaking shock for us to hear about the bomb that recently went off in the city. It was so shocking to hear about this tragedy in what has always been known as such a peaceful place.

The government has also been shocked about what happened and placed police and troops on high alert after the blast that killed eight and left countless more wounded in the hospital. As of this week, Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II said they were carefully reconstructing the blast site to try to get more clues to give them an idea as to who was responsible for the bombing.

While there are currently no leads or suspects for the tragedy, Roxas said investigators are looking into finding out what type of bomb caused the explosion which will help them put together ideas on who could have caused it. What he did mention was that it seemed unlikely that the bombing was caused by Muslim militants who usually use a specific type of bombing device, of which there was no evidence of at the scene.

As far as we know, Cagayan de Oro has typically been unscathed by years of conflict involving Muslim and Communist insurgents that have been known to plague many parts of Mindanao. In fact, the MILF also condemned the blast and said they had no forces operating in Cagayan de Oro. Should they be called on to help find the perpetrators, they said they would gladly offer their help.

Ever since the tragedy occurred so many theories have been flying around as to whom the real target or targets of the blast were? Was it a political problem involving city officials? Was it a business problem between businessmen and those involved in work? Or was it possibly even the many doctors who were in Cagayan de Oro as well as representatives of the pharmaceutical companies who were attending the mid-year Philippine College of Chest Physicians? I suppose only time and evidence will tell us who was the real target and what the true agenda of the bombers was.

Most likely, according to the news, whoever is responsible for the tragedy is in a personal conflict. If this is true, than I have to agree with Roxas when he called the act an act of cowardice. If it truly was a vendetta involving specific people than they should have ironed it out themselves instead of endangering the lives of so many innocent people and overall shaking the foundation of peace in an otherwise peaceful community.

Should those involved in the conflict have wanted the confrontation to come to some sort of physical blows, again they should have just taken it up with each other. Why would anyone resort to placing a bomb in such a crowded area? And not only was it a crowded area but it was also a family area, considering it took place so close to the mall and in a favorite eatery and pastry café.

I am still in shock that this happened, and I hope it is something that can be resolved as quickly as possible. So many friends who are in Cagayan de Oro are still scared because it remains unsolved. Are the bombers still out there? Hopefully, this is an isolated incident and will get resolved soon so Cagayan de Oro can once again begin the rebuilding process. They have proven that they can do so with grace and confidence and I have no doubt they can do it again.