Secure in Father's Arms: Investigating the Pain Brought by the Hostage-Taking in Manila

Building a family has among its pillars the provision of security to kids. It is an integral part of fatherhood. It is both a reward and a responsibility to see your kids gather around you.

Police commandos assault a bus in a hostage-taking incident
at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila on Aug 23, 2010.
Source: CBC News | Manila bus hostage-taking ends with 9 dead

Why do kids love to gather around parents? They do it even when parents want to be alone sometimes. Kids simply do that. Or, they at least yearn to do that.

Kids long for the security of being around a loving and protective parent. They know everything will go just fine. Things are fine regardless of how strong the rain or how loud the thunderclap is. Their initial fears quickly fizzle out. That is, when they feel the strong arms of their father around them.

At this point let me zoom out very quickly and see Filipino society. We are one big family. The citizens are children of the State.

To whom do we lean on for security? To whom do we gather around so that our fears quickly fizzle out? To whom do we run to in the midst of strong rains and loud thunderclaps?

We tremble at the absence of a good answer.

Everybody went berserk as they watched the hostage-taking situation in Manila. It was a poorly executed police operation that costed the lives of Chinese tourists and maimed others.

It was also an event that sliced the hearts of the Filipino people cleanly in two.

The perpetrator wore the uniform of a policeman. The uniformed people who dealt with the situation were policemen. The people who bangled everything in front of the entire world were members of the Philippine National Police! They were our police!

A child does not understand the word betrayal. A child simply asks questions persistently. He does that until he finds an answer that satisfies him.

There is a child with big round uncomprehending eyes in the midst of investigations, official statements, resignations and litigations at the wake of that sad event. I hope the State sees this child with loving eyes. He is the child in each of 80 million Filipinos here and abroad.

My kids gathered around me one afternoon while I was watching DVD.
My wife saw it and quickly took this photo.

In the middle of our sleep, we turn, and sigh, and cry. The child in each one of us asks questions. Who do we turn to now? Who shall protect us? Who shall wrap their strong and loving arms around us? Who shall assure us that everything would be fine?

If something must come out good from what happened, I pray it would be the realization that many hearts simply were wounded and maimed.

To say sorry is one thing. To transform is another.