Echoes From
BY JOHNNY DAYANG

Terror in the city

Surreal is a understatement. A bus explosion along traffic-congested Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (EDSA) in busy Makati City on a Tuesday afternoon this week seems more like a scene from a popular crime drama like "CSI" or "24" or even, "Criminal Minds," than a real news event.

Even the name of the unfortunate bus driver came across as cinematic: Maximo Peligro that roughly translated, would mean, "Maximum Risk."

As in all breaking news, the facts came out within the hour: bus was a northbound Newman Goldliner (Plate No. TXJ-710) plying the Baclaran-SM Fairview route; bomb went off at 2 p.m. near the north gate of posh Forbes Park subdivision, as the bus approached the loading bay on EDSA and the MRT station on Gil Puyat Street; the bombing attack injured 14 people, of which five had been killed as of Wednesday morning.

Official information disclosed the bus bombing came just two months after the United States warned that there was an imminent terrorist attack in Manila.

Wow. The incident has all the ingredients of a crime fighter TV series that would make a killing in the ratings game. The problem is, this is not a script for a story that will come out in next week's episode of a top-rated crime drama.

Heck, we don't even have a show like that here in the Philippines. We neither have the talent nor the logistics to attain that high level of TV production.

In fact, even our real-life law enforcers have trouble keeping up with the quality of investigation or state-of-the-art equipment sophistication of their fictional counterparts.

We have to face the facts. Terror cannot be sown in Metro Manila. Our people, our government, our way of life have no defense against this kind of mayhem. We are a poor country and that translates to being improperly equipped in law enforcement.

But what we have are numbers. We have millions of citizens that would willingly make a stand and take action against terrorism.

Nobody wants to be a victim of a terrorist attack. So, it's logical that after Tuesday's bus bombing incident, Filipinos of every kind and make would be open to supporting a grim-and-determined anto-terrorist plan.

That is, if the government has one.