I sign on, and Mic messages me that there have been bus bombings in the Philippines: in Makati, General Santos, and Davao. Abu Sayyaf has claimed responsibility. I just talked to Mom on the phone, and the family’s all okay at home.

(Updates will be posted to this entry as I see them. Leave a comment if you’ve written something about this.)

Reports: Manila Times, Inquirer, ABS-CBN News, Sun Star, AP via CBS News, BBC.

Five years ago, I would have said that the Abu Sayyaf have accomplished only their own final demise, but we know better now, don’t we? People will die, there will be mourning and outrage, fingers will point, politicians will grandstand, bombs will fall, and at the other side of it, things will be the same. Before I go on, this is not a “give peace a chance” platitude, but a simple statement from past experience: the Philippine government has neither the resources, motivation, or integrity to get rid of terrorists. Years later, the Abu Sayyaf and the MILF are still there, killing Filipinos.

More from ClickMoMukhaMo, Kanto Girl, In Retrospect, and ongoing discussion at PinoyExchange.

Chaos in Makati. If I were still working in Makati, I would probably have been hunting for a Sucat bus at EDSA-Ayala Terminal, right at the time of the explosion.

“There’s a Bomb on the Bus,” and Ayala Incident: two bloggers who passed through the EDSA-Ayala area just after the explosions. Monique was almost there.

Monica has some fuzzy pictures from the location. T0nichi heard it, and thought at first that it was thunder. Lynn could have been driving right through EDSA-Ayala at the time of the explosion. TwistedKamote has details on which buses were damaged: northbound Fairview and Novaliches buses, apparently. Alexandra contacted two friends who were in the MRT station directly above the bombing at the time.

Willie Galang was in Glorietta when he saw the mob of people running through the mall.