The Mike Abundo Effect

Saying it was “business as usual,” President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo went shopping and had a cup of coffee at the Glorietta mall in the Makati financial district on Tuesday, four days after an explosion there left 11 people killed and close to 100 others wounded.

The President smiled and waved at shoppers, and posed for photographs at the second floor veranda of Glorietta 2, overlooking the mall atrium.

Gloria has been consistently callous about the Glorietta bombing; her latest display is true to form. I guess mayhem is business as usual to this woman.

Her first reaction: “Don’t try to pin this on me.”

Her second reaction: “Stop crying. Have some money.”

Even if she had nothing to do with the Glorietta bombing, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s reaction to the tragedy has been less than sympathetic. Aloofness is a luxury she can ill afford at this point.

Another one bites the dust.

The death toll from Friday’s Glorietta 2 mall explosion is now at 11, after one of the victims in critical condition died before dawn Sunday.

Makati Councilor Junjun Binay identified the 11th fatality as Ricardo Betras, 24.

Betras died around 2:23 am at the Ospital ng Makati.

It just keeps getting worse and worse. That no one has taken credit for these deaths only suggests that the person responsible is sitting somewhere silently satisfied with the results.