I’ve been extremely busy with work-related concerns, so I am unable to blog as often as I’d like. The House of Representatives is located in Quezon City, approximately a 45-minute drive from my home and an hour and a half away from Makati City, where I work.

The explosion at the House of Representatives killed Basilan representative Basilan Representative Wahab Akbar and two others, and injured a few other lawmakers. It exploded just last night here in Manila, on the eve of the resumption of a congressional hearing on the latest impeachment complaint against our country’s president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Based on what I’ve gathered from local media and the observations of several astute Filipino pundit-bloggers, evidence (nail & broken glass shrapnel, the 3-foot crater in the ground) points to the handiwork of government destabilizing elements, although, frankly, I wouldn’t put it past the government to try something like this to take away from the impeachment efforts. The air here is thick with suspicion and the smell of gunpowder.
An explosion a few weeks earlier at the Glorietta Mall in Makati City - literally a few minutes away from where I work - was proven to be an accident, and not a terrorist attack. Nevertheless, many of us are a little shaken.

I can’t provide regular updates, but your readers can keep up to date with the regular updates provided by the website of the Philippine Daily Inquirer at http://www.inquirer.net.

Thanks for your concern. We in the Philippines request your prayers for political unity and stability.