The nation has become so accustomed to such events that apart from suffering some initial discomforts the public remains unperturbed by them. This morning, the peso opened four centavos up against the dollar. At the close of yesterday’s trading, the Philippine Stock Exchange index climbed 1.5% snapping a five day losing streak while the broader all ordinaries index rallied by 3.2%. #

Unlike the bomb blasts in Indonesia which claim the lives of hundreds of individuals at a time including foreign nationals, yesterday’s incident which regrettably has claimed the lives of five innocent civilians will hardly register a blip in the overall scheme of things. Travel warnings by foreign governments with respect to the Philippines have remained in place (despite the administration quibbling with them over whether these should cover the entire archipelago or be limited to pockets in the south), but is has not stopped the flow of tourists into the country (neither have they deterred flows into Indonesia for that matter). #

Today it is reported that the growth prospects of the country remain strong (similar incidents last year have hardly made a dent). The country appears to be better suited than its neighbors to weather the challenges associated with a rebounding global economy. The international news agencies hardly took notice of the bombing having the much larger explosion in Russia to contend with. #

On the whole, it is hard to imagine that any lasting impression or impact will be felt by either the polity or the economy from yesterday’s apparently terrorist attack. It leads one to think what had the perpetrators hoped to achieve by staging it. If sympathy to their cause is what they had hoped for, they are truly deluded. It is more likely that it will breed a sense of apathy with the broader public which have simply grown numb to such events. If it is fear they wish to sow, then again the opening bell of today’s financial markets will hardly manifest this. #

An unsettling argument. On the one hand, it tells a hard lesson to would-be terrorists that killing people just does not make the cut anymore. On the other hand, that hard lesson is at the expense of 5 human lives.