It was just an ordinary friday afternoon and we were assigned to man the booth at Glorietta. Its actually located beside the Havin a Baby store at Glorietta 1. We were scheduled to man the booth from 10am - 3pm since another group would be manning from 3pm to closing time. Around 12:30pm, Didith ate her lunch and left Jacy and I behind. When she got back after eating, Jacy said she was still too full to eat while I was really planning on eating once I go home.
Around 1:30pm we were saying that we need to give away all of our fliers before the next group comes in. Then I distinctly remember I was seating on the couch facing the Glorietta 2 side when I heard a big boom. Together with the big boom was an earth shattering like earthquake. Then in just a couple of seconds, I saw something fell from the ceiling. It was a big chunk but it looked like it didn't weigh much. Then everybody started running as fast as they could towards our direction. I didn't panic since as some of you might know, I was also in Glorietta during the Valentine's Day bombing last February 14, 2005. Both times, I was very calm. 2 years ago I was with Ivan and we were at the streets beside Timezone Glorietta 2 when everyone just started running towards the exit. Ivan looked so cool but he was signalling for me to hurry up because I was actually trying to stay behind to check what was going on. Later did I find out the incident happened in a bus near Makati so in a way, there was an exaggeration on the part of the people.
But today was different. I heard the explosion and I saw something that triggered why everybody started to panic. Everything I saw was not close enough for me to realize the urgency to get the heck out of the mall. I started to pack my things calmly and I was again trying to look for more details why the people were trying to get out of the mall but Jacy was really scared that she kept on calling for us and was in a hurry. We got out of Glorietta and went straight to Park Square 1. While everybody was outside and trying to figure out what happened, everybody just started running away again. This time we stayed at the Dusit Hotel. For about an hour of calling people we know, we just wanted to go home but Didith and Jacy were kind enough to make sure I've gotten my car in the parking lot of Glorietta 4 before we went our seperate ways. Unfortunately, nobody was allowed to go inside the mall nor the parking. We had to seat together with the hundreds of people around the area while the fire brigade, ambulance and media people were trying to check on what happened.
My view while seating on the "bangketa" of Glorietta 4.
The same view 15 minutes after.
When we somehow felt it was going to take a longer time for me to get my car, I decided to just wait in the condo so that the others may go as well to their own homes. Automatically, I opened the TV to check what had happened according to the news. That was the only time I realized how lucky I am not to have been hurt let alone died out there. Around 5:45pm, I saw in the news that the cars that wanted to get out of the area are now cleared to go.
I got home around 6:30pm and I was so happy to see my inspiration to live every second of everyday, my Ricki.
