Or maybe just crime, writes Asia Sentinel.
At 10:40 a.m on Sept. 6, a squad of perhaps half a dozen men reportedly armed with M-16 rifles and a grenade launcher, according to police, invaded the cavernous SM Mall in Dasmarinas, Cavite, about 35 km south of Manila, and interrupted personnel for Banco De Oro as they were about to unload cash into an automated teller machine.
When a security guard put up a fight, he was shot three times and wounded. A second security guard was wounded as well. The robbers escaped with an estimated P4-5 million (US$90,000 to 112,000) in cash. They dumped their car a few blocks away and made a clean getaway in a second vehicle. The local governor announced on television that in contrast to the bus hostage debacle, the police had responded with alacrity and courage in attempting to catch the fleeing gunmen and would be rewarded – although they hadn’t caught anybody.
This episode of cops and robbers is more typical, both for its violence and its reward for doing nothing, is more common than anybody would like to think in the Philippines, even if it is overshadowed by the horrific events of Aug. 22, when eight Hong Kong tourists and their ex-cop captor died in a disastrously mishandled shootout that left the country humiliated and facing furious questions from the Hong Kong and Chinese governments.
And, as a report by Pacific Strategies & Assessments, a Manila-based risk assessment group, pointed out, on the same day the bus hijacking was being botched in Rizal Park, an incident took place “that characterizes today’s Philippine risk climate and is equally critical for foreigners to understand.”
