In light of the recent Makati, Davao and General Santos City bombings, it’s time to ditch those oversized bags again in favor of either teeny-tiny bags or no bags at all. We’ve all sort of gotten used to bag checks before entering… well, practically anywhere. But this time, they’re actually trying to look at what’s inside the bags again. I remember not even being done unzipping mine at the Glorietta 4 entrance when the security guard waved me off and let me pass through without checking if I have a homemade bomb under all those Starbucks receipts and, possibly, sanitary pads.

I went to Edsa Shangri-La yesterday and apart from checking the trunk and underneath the cars, security people also now open the door on the passenger side and let dogs sniff inside.

All these safety measures seem a little delayed to me. A bombing happens, all the securities are in place, wait a few months and everyone’s a little lax again and wham! I mean, is the Abu Sayaff really going to bother to bomb malls now that security is tight? They’ll bide their time and wait for “ningas kugon” to set in.

And finally, on Tuesday, a friend and I went to the UP Fair, and while Rivermaya was onstage, people in front of us just started running away from the stage. We had no idea what was going on but we ran, too. We weren’t exactly willing to stick around to find out, just in case it was a bomb or something. Turns out two jerks, who were not even UP students, were fighting and people just panicked.

The funny thing was Rivermaya was performing “Ul B Safe Here.” After everyone stopped running when they didn’t hear or see anything blowing up to bits, they slowly returned near the stage. Just then, Rico Blanco, the lead singer who wasn’t even the least bit alarmed by the commotion even though we’re pretty sure he saw it, sang the last line of the song: “You’ll be safe here.” Ironically funny.