|
Monday, March 17, 2003
Peņa: Can anyone spot a terrorist?
By Aurelio A. Pena
But some people are saying -- and I agree with them -- that the "safest time" to be in Davao is just after a bombing. This is the time when you don't want to go to the mall, to a movie theatre, to a church, to a crowded park to any place where lots of people gather.
THOSE of you who have lived here in Davao City for the last three to four decades and "have seen it all" will probably point to that bloody carnage at the airport's waiting shed as something that was bound to happen because this city had been so quiet and so peaceful for so long.
If you go back to all the historic bombings in this city since the mid-70s to the early 80s, something usually explode when it's so quiet and so peaceful and people are so nice, smiling cops don't bother looking into their backpacks, bags and pockets for apple grenades or improvised, ticking time bombs.
The problem with all of us here in Davao is that we're all so careful and so security-concious as hell only after a bomb or grenade had just killed and wounded so many of us. Because we're all so goddamn scared after seeing all that bloody gore, we tend to make all these silly security inspections to make sure nothing like that won't happen again in the next few days.
But some people are saying -- and I agree with them -- that the "safest time" to be in Davao is just after a bombing. This is the time when you don't want to go to the mall, to a movie theatre, to a church, to a crowded park to any place where lots of people gather.
Mall security guards are the dumbest of all when inspecting people entering thru the doors of their shopping mall. You watch them rummage into the bags of pretty women and grandmothers like they were terrorists out to plant bombs in the mall.
Then you watch them snapping a smart salute to heavily armed men with M-203 on their chests, accompanying the wife of a top politician who's doing her shopping at the mall. I've seen this a lot of times. The wonder of it all, nothing bloody has happened yet, God forbid, in the mall after seeing all these "weapons of mass destruction" being brandished by politicians' bodyguards right here in Davao.
My point is that cops, military or security guards aren't trained well enough to look at the right places and focus their attention on the right people.
Are they trained at what particular type or profile of persons they should look at more closely? Are they trained where and how a bomb or grenade could be hidden or carried by potential terrorists? (Then, why for God's sake, do you inspect only the bags of pretty girls?)
Look at that carnage at the airport's waiting shed. All these airport guys -- airport security men and cops -- cared about was to protect only that old airport terminal building, the aircraft and all the arriving and departing passengers.
No one cared about the safety of the mass of people gathering at the waiting shed to say goodbyes or to welcome loved ones arriving at the airport. To the airport security men, they were just "the waiting public" and were all considered "security risks" as far as they were concerned -- because they weren't allowed inside the airport terminal.
Well, among these waiting people they considered "security risks" were 23 dead women, men and children and over 160 wounded for life.
(March 17, 2003 issue)
Want Sun.Star news on your mobile phone? Click here.
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
[ return
to top ]
[ home
]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
