My internets have been fucked up since yesterday morning so I wasn’t able to post sooner.
So there was an explosion in Glorietta 2. Nine people are dead at last count. A member of a militant group texted the media that they did it.
I’ve experienced a mall bombing before. It was in Megamall seven or eight years ago – a small bomb went off at the cinema across the one I was in. Everyone felt it when the bomb went off. It was a sudden jolt, like a split-second earthquake. At first, you’re not sure what just happened, or if something did happen. Then someone dares to look and tells you there’s smoke, you should evacuate. And you do, calmly, even, hoping as you’re walking that no one’s died, knowing someone has.
My grandmother was watching live news coverage of the aftermath Friday as I was about to leave for work. I didn’t catch the time the blast occurred so I worried about my brother, who works in Makati and takes the Ayala Terminal shuttle home. If you’re in the mall, the nearest exit to the terminal is the one at Glorietta 2.
The blast occurred in the early afternoon. If it had gone off during rush hour, or on a payday Friday, more people might have been killed or injured.
First thing I did when I got to the office was to search for a list of dead and injured. Sorry to sound insensitive, but I was relieved there was no one I know on that list.
A day after the blast, it was business as usual. Because of course, the best way to deal with something like this is to carry on as if nothing happened. Hey, everyone does it, even me. After exiting Megamall after the bomb went off, we crossed over to Shangri-la Mall to finish the movie we were watching.
(x-posted at LJ)
