By Mortz
Ortigoza
Security
was tight last Saturday when I passed by Toril in Davao City when I left
Kidapawan City through a public utility van.
Soldiers
from Task Force Davao flagged all private and public vehicles that ingress the
national highway before they reached the city proper.
“Kahit police pa ang nakasakay sa kotse
pinapababa at ini-inspection ang mga bags nila,” one of the three Muslim
guys who were my fellow passengers, probably college students, quipped in
accented Tagalog.
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A soldier in the Middle East uses a bomb detector device to check the cars of terrorists who want to sabotage the tranquility of the area. Filipino soldiers in bombed prone Davao City use a stick to dig the bags of commuters if they hid a bomb there. |
They
speak the vernacular in difference probably with the mostly Christian
passengers in the Toyota Hi
Ace Super Grandia used mostly by Mindanaons as common carrier that plies the
Cotabato City- Davao City route.
***
I was
dismayed about the antiquated system of the military in searching the bags of
those who entered Duterte’s City Davao.
Since
time immemorial I’ve been observing the lack of initiatives of our government in
searching the belongings of the commuters and motorists for concealed bomb that
have rocked the City for several times in the past.
How can a
12 inches stick son of a gun used by the soldiers detect an improvised
explosive device (IED) in the three different checkpoint hubs they put to detect
when they dig only like idiots the upper portion of the stuffs in the bag?
How about
the taped packages and the boxes at the back of the van, trunks of the car and
bus?