On senseless acts of terrorism

“Peace,” aside from love, is probably the most sought after word in the dictionary. But is peace only meant to be aspired and never to be achieved? Will it ever pass the pageant stage? Will it ever be more than a word? The chaos in the political arena plus the constant threat of insurgency in many areas in the country and the recent streak of terrorism that claimed many lives are enough to tell us that peace is as elusive as snow in the Philippines.

Weeks ago, the country has been assailed by news of bombings that killed so many lives and damaged properties. Authorities have been knee-deep in investigating the incidents yet until now nobody could really shed light as to who perpetrated the incidents, there are so many speculations but nobody could give the answer that we had been asking for. So many lives have been claimed and millions of properties have been damaged by these acts of terrorism and I can’t help but wonder what the ideologies of these criminals really are, or if they even have one.

The heart-wrenching tales of families whose loved ones died during the bombings are tales of promises, hope and unfulfilled dreams. Seeing this people suffer and hearing their dreams shatter in just a blink of an eye makes one wonder how people could so easily set an instrument that could damage not only millions of worth of properties but most of all claim lives and ruin families. It is an instrument that should not have been invented nor discovered in the first place because it has no righteous purpose in this world.

The fault of one is not the fault of all. If one is unsatisfied with the kind of government that we have, bombing malls and government buildings is not the answer. Those people who died in Glorietta are not responsible for those corrupt officials sitting in the government right now. Or if they are, then they are not the only ones. Millions of people voted for these officials and killing a handful of innocent people is not enough to remove these leaders from their seats. No life is worth sacrificing for an ideology, religious or political, especially the lives of innocent people.

These senseless acts of violence only degrade and hampers to the development of this country. It scares off investors, tourists and creates a negative image of the country that we are working so hard to promote. If this continues, how can we expect to gain economic stability? How can we continue to be proud of our country when we ourselves feel threatened living in it? Tourism is one of our major industries but how can we attract tourists if we are projecting an image of violence and danger?

Bombing buildings, killing people, and rebelling against the government do not constitute a person who seeks for peace and for the greater good. It presented a person who is irrational, selfish and self-centered. It presents a person who only wants to advance his agenda without thinking about the welfare of the rest of the people around him. If you want to protest against a government, do it in a peaceful way. If you are unsatisfied for the kind of leaders that we have now then let it be a lesson to you to choose a political candidate whose aim is to selflessly and purely serve the public, if ever there is one.

The country will never develop if every discontent would be answered by violence. We would be worse off than those communist countries we so greatly fear. If we want change, it should start from ourselves. If we want peace we need to more than aspire for it, we should work for it and start it in our selves. Peace can never be achieved by killing people or by resorting to violence. Nothing good has ever come out of violence; this is something that we should learn.