zamboanga under siege? nah...

tiene bomba anoche! pakshit talaga! last night, zamboanga has once again been caught under fire by two bomb explosions. a "terrorist attack" as the media would fondly call it. an irritatingly treacherous term, that can drag this city's reputation , tourism and sobriety down the drain. that is if there are any left. the only consolation we get is taht there were no fatalities. other than that, there's none. this pestilent violence has been like a stigma, haunting this city for many years now. the city of flowers. el orgullo de mindanao. what an irony, why don't we just stop calling this city as such? besides, the reason for calling this city the city of flowers has long been gone. obsolete. history. this was the city of flowers, not this is. today, the mere mention of this city (even i am afraid to mention) denotes terrorism. the synonymity between zamboanga and the words "ASG," bomb, terrorist, fear, dread, and so on and so forth is evident, and more evident the farther you go away from this city. try asking a davaoueño (how do u spell dat?) and a cebuano and you'll see that they differ in opinion, or rather, differ in misconceptions. try treating both of them for a round trip to zamboanga city, with free hotel accomodation and a one day tour across "pueblo", walking along the sidewalks, peeking through garbage cans. it's either the davaoueño will come and the cebuano will not or, after last night, both would give you money and run like hell. the last bombings were two years ago, and two years is a long time. i am not saying that two years is a long time for another bombing, i'm just saying that two years is long enough to call zamboanga a reasonably safe place to live in. "the act of terrorism. to terrorize, to escalate fear and terror within a people." last night's bombing does not fall into this category.we are not afraid. we were never afraid. fear not my young padawan learner! viva zamboanga!