Monday, September 27, 2010

Insight: The 2010 Bar Exam Mishap

I could not help but quiver at the carnage...


I was back at my home province, celebrating with my family for my youngest sister's 7th birthday. That night however, I was shocked when I saw the news about the bombings near De La Salle University during the final week of the 2010 Bar Examinations.


At first I thought it was just some stray fireworks that some of the fraternity well-wishers intended to use to celebrate the achievements of their brother-barristers. I was however in for a VERY rude awakening. 


The next day, unaware of what has transpired, I arrived at my apartment in Manila and got a more gruesome view of the scenario: some of my fraternity brothers and sisters were primarily the victims of the mishap. According to the reports, someone wearing a jacket, who was identified as a member of another fraternity was seen throwing a grenade at the crowd. The resulting numbers were just mind-boggling: an estimate of 44 people injured, 9 of them from our fraternity and our partner sorority; 4 of them seriously injured, including two sisters with their legs amputated.


A few hours after this blog I intend on visiting some of the victims, who were not just my erstwhile fraternity brothers and sorority sisters, but also close friends. Further blog posts will just have to be put on hold until I can finally hold my peace of mind together. I urge all those who would chance upon this post to pray for the victims. 


I just hope and pray that justice be served upon those people responsible...


"God bless us everyone
We are broken people living under loaded gun
And we can't be outfought
We can't be outdone
We can't be outmatched
We can't be outrun..."


-Adapted from Linkin Park's The Catalyst...  

2 comments:

  1. Grenades?! How the heck do they get these things! That is a seriously messed up scenario.

    I don't pray but I hope and wish that all your friends and close ones will have a very speedy recovery from their injuries and no one is too traumatized from this event...

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  2. AFAIK, the weapon used in the blast was a MK2 Fragmentation Grenade; those are already quite antiquated and can be acquired via contacts in the Black Market (not that I knew of anyone...)

    Maybe the bloke had been keeping a few of those in case one of those 'Frat Wars' break out, maybe for easy dispersal of dissidents.

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