Protected by God

I WAS there when the explosion occurred at Glorietta 2 on Oct. 19, 2007. It was a Friday and the explosion claimed 11 lives and injured 126 other people.

My daughter, Maricar, a medical doctor then based in Jakarta, Indonesia, was on a five-day vacation in the Philippines. She took advantage of her leave to see her dentist, Dr. Dawn Red Pineda. The clinic, Dentista Inc. was then located at Park Square 2, a building separated by a narrow street of approximately 12 meters from Glorietta 2.

My daughter’s dental appointment was scheduled at 12:30 p.m. Since our residence in Fairview, Quezon City, is some 20 kilometers from Makati, we left home at around 11 a.m., with me driving, to avoid the lunch-hour traffic. We arrived early but as luck would have it, there were no other patients around at that time so my daughter was immediately attended to. We agreed to meet at Mangan Restaurant in Glorietta 2 for lunch afterward.

Our family usually goes to Glorietta as a form of bonding. My wife, Erlie, and our children, Maricar and Perlita, would do some shopping (or mostly window-shopping) and eat lunch either at Mangan, our favorite restaurant in the mall, which is famous for its native cuisine, or at Luk Yuen Noodle House, which specializes in pancit canton.

On that day, however, my wife had a severe allergy and could not come with us. Perlita decided to stay at home with her, so only Maricar and I went to Makati.

While Maricar was having her dental treatment, I proceeded to Mercury Drug Store in Glorietta 2 to buy medicine for my wife’s allergy. I then decided to pass the time reading on a wooden bench at the ground-floor lobby near the escalator of the building (it is my habit to bring my own reading materials whenever our family goes to the mall in case my wife and daughters take too much time shopping before or after our appointed lunch at Mangan). At that time I was reading an article, “Why New Orleans Isn’t Safe” (Time Magazine, Aug. 20, 2007). But I became restless; I found the article quite technical, with engineering terms which I could not understand, so I decided to leave Glorietta 2 and return to the dental clinic.

It was around 1:25 p.m. when I reached the clinic. Dr. Pineda greeted and informed me that Maricar’s dental treatment had been completed, and at the same time I saw my daughter settling her bill at the receptionist’s desk. We bade Dr. Pineda goodbye and headed to Glorietta 2 for lunch but at the last minute, we decided to go to the public restroom of Park Square 2. But before we reached the restroom, we heard a very loud explosion coming from the mall. We saw a cloud of smoke and, shortly, people were running toward us, scampering for safety. Some of them were bleeding from injuries apparently inflicted by broken glass. We followed them and rushed out of the building. I was yelling “Be calm, don’t panic!” but I myself was very afraid and nervous. My fear was that another explosion would follow. I was running but I did not feel my feet touching the ground, as though I was being carried by my guardian angel.

I do not even remember how I drove home, but we finally reached Fairview without having lunch and in a state of shock.

I believe God was protecting us that day. It was providential that my wife had an allergy. If she and Perlita did not stay home, we would have taken our time at Glorietta 2 while Maricar was at the dental clinic. Had I not been bored by the article I was reading, I would have stayed in the mall for another minute… I would have been one of the 11 casualties, or at least one of the 126 injured. The very bench where I sat was shattered to pieces. Dead bodies were recovered near that bench. I can only thank God that my daughter and I were saved.

Since childhood I have always believed in the Supreme Being overseeing our daily lives. The incident at Glorietta 2 further strengthened my faith.

Pio P. Frago (piofrago@yahoo.com), 73, is a lawyer and a retired director of the University of the Philippines Human Resource Development Office.