How do you secure Sinulog from terrorists?
With a major war about to erupt in the Middle East, and the continuing threats of terrorism worldwide, I think that the biggest headache giving our good friend, Mayor Edgar Labella nightmares and sleepless nights nowadays is no longer the traffic, nor the garbage. Not even the drug problem. It is the major, major challenge of securing thousands of people attending the upcoming Sinulog celebration.
Imagine some foreign and local terrorists, be they Jamiya Islamiya, BIFF, Abu Sayyaf or NPA, or plain stupid, maniacal drug addicts who might style themselves as suicide bombers, for whatever reason or motivation. These rascals may be doing their homework, too, scheming, strategizing, planning, coordinating, and prototyping their tactics, right at these moments when the mayor's men are also mapping out every minutest detail of their execution plan. I could imagine the fears and apprehensions of the honorable mayor. When anything can go wrong, it will. That is a law in management and planning techniques. If something untoward happens, all fingers would be pointed to Mayor Labella. This is called command responsibility. All the little Indians down there who do the implementation of plans can slip and fail, then delegate the guilt and responsibility upward to the Big Chief.
Can you imagine how many thousands of Americans and Europeans are coming? They are the most coveted targets of both the communists and the religious jihadists. Any single foreigner hurt would entitle the terrorists tremendous rewards from their masters, in cash, guns and promotions in the terrorism totem pole. I know that all security plans have been put in place. But when there is a determined assassin, or a well-prepared killer, not even the most intricate plans can guarantee absolute safety. Even the FBI, in Dallas, Texas could not predict nor prevent the assassination of President JFK. Even the Pentagon, the FBI and the Federal Police forces could not prevent the 911 terrorist attacks and the attempt to bomb both the Pentagon the White House.
I was made to understand that there is a plan to disable all cellphones so as to prevent detonation of bombs through such devices. That would disable linkages among the good men, and giving the bad ones other ways to circumvent. And the terrorists are not stupid; they have a hundred other options. They can even use unmanned vehicles, vessels to ram into crowds and do the terrorist attacks. They can use drones and robots via artificial intelligence. All places and all events are vulnerable. Paris was bombed, New York was bombed, even the US and other embassies were bombed. Don't tell me that these very important places were not secured by hundreds if not thousands of warm bodies, complete with all the high tech gadgets and high-powered armaments. But just the same, the offense is always stronger than the defense.
I do not envy the role of the mayor. These headaches could have been delegated to Vice Mayor Mike Rama, who has all the expertise and the experience. But the mayor's boys thought they could do a better job. So, let them. I could only hope and pray to the Santo Niño to bless the Sinulog. God bless us all.
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