Blasts rock business

As usual, the bombings in Mindanao have spawned a lot of speculations pointing to politics as an underlying issue, with suspicions that the scene is being staged for the eventual declaration of martial law in this country. Some are saying however that this is an old recurring tune which has been played over and over again in the past, and people are not exactly buying it this time.  

Opposing parties have been quick to point fingers at each other, but a lot of suspicion is being directed against the Jemaah Islamiyah and rogue MILF forces, in particular the so-called Special Operations Group, while the blasts that followed in Jolo are being attributed to the Abu Sayyaf. You can’t really blame people for suspecting these groups.

After all, the ASG et. al. have been tagged as responsible for the past bombings over the years. People can still remember the December 2000 bombings that wounded scores of people and killed at least 13 a day after the Philippine National Police captured two ASG operatives who were allegedly tasked to sow terror in the metropolis during the Christmas season. For a while there, people became so scared of riding the LRT for fear of another blast occurring.

That last Sunday’s explosion in Cotabato happened outside a Catholic church is even more unfortunate considering that some elements could use the situation to foment distrust and suspicion between Catholics and Muslims. No doubt the international community is closely watching developments, with even Pope Benedict XVI issuing a strong condemnation against the act which he described as “heinous.” 

The US is naturally concerned and is quietly watching the developments as they unfold. Authorities are investigating to determine if the series of bombings are part of a destabilization plot, and if the Mindanao blasts are connected with the previous blasts in the Ombudsman’s office and the discovery of an explosive devise at the Department of Agriculture in Quezon City. Whether these evil acts were the handiwork of terrorists or not, we don’t know, but the bottom line is that these blasts are rocking business particularly in the South.

It’s bad enough that the global financial meltdown has already made business difficult in this country, with domestic spending already cut down and OFW remittances expected to slow down this year. Add to that the fact that the World Health Organization has declared the Philippines as the eighth country with the most number of swine flu cases in the world (close to 2,000 reported cases, beating Argentina and Japan). The news has undoubtedly affected the tourism industry in the country and the bookings in many hotels as a consequence.

And now we have these bombings that are turning away a lot of potential investors in a region that’s supposed to be rich with promise, abounding with a lot of natural resources and sitting on rich deposits of oil, minerals and natural gas. For so long, the unrest in Mindanao has marred efforts to uplift the livelihood of the people in the region and has made economic development so difficult to accomplish.

Assistant Secretary and Anti-Terrorism Task Force director Ric Blancaflor is right in admonishing people to stay calm and not feed the frenzy since allowing chaos to rule will affect the whole country – which is exactly what the perpetrators want to accomplish. Allowing ourselves to be paralyzed by fear and paranoia will only make matters worse. Whoever is behind this series of bombings has only one objective – to bring down the government by sowing terror, suspicion and distrust among the people. In the end, guess who suffers the most.

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Presidentiable slugfest

The upcoming 10th FVR-RPDEV lecture on “Six-Year Socio-Economic Peace Program” on July 16 at the RCBC Plaza in Makati will be pitting Mar Roxas, Loren Legarda, Bayani Fernando, Gilbert Teodoro, Dick Gordon and Chiz Escudero against each other as they try to impress the audience with their 20-minute PowerPoint presentations detailing their plans for the economy and peace and security in the country.

The presidentiables will be fielding tough questions from a panel, followed by an open forum moderated by Weber Shandwick CEO and former Malacañang spokesperson Mike Toledo. 

Conspicuously missing in the list however is former president Joseph Estrada, giving rise to speculations that Erap may not have been deliberately invited because FVR may still be “sore” at him. It can be recalled that Joseph Estrada ordered an investigation into the multibillion-peso Centennial Expo pet project of FVR for alleged corruption and other irregularities.  But then again, perhaps Erap was not invited because the organizers think he will not run in 2010 anyway, since he might be disqualified due to Constitutional questions.

In any case, it would be interesting to hear the “platform” of these as-of-yet unofficial presidential candidates.

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