Valentine's Day is very special for a lot of people. It is a time for taking your significant other to some special place. It is a time for making relationships even stronger. And quite simply, it is a time for love. Unfortunaly for Filipinos, it also turned out to be a time to kill.
Last Monday, while most lovers were on their way to their romantic getaways, terrorists made their presence felt once again. Between six and seven in the evening, several explosions rocked the cities of Makati, Cagayan de Oro, and Davao, one after the other. Seven people were killed instantly, and about a hundred others were wounded, in varying degrees. Later that evening, Abu Solaiman, supossed spokesman of Abu Sayyaf, claimed in a radio interview that the bombings were their "Valentine's gift" for President Gloria Arroyo.
These attacks have once again underscored the enormous challenges involved in combatting terrorism. It also showed how easy it is to win in one front of this war and lose immediately in the other (The attacks took place at around the same time that the Philippine military was within inches of crushing the Sulu rebellion). Hopefully, sooner rather than later, the RIGHT people will be made to pay for these despicable acts.