The news about Ces Drilon’s abduction is sad indeed.

It must be a huge comfort to her family to know that there is an all-out effort (based on Ding G. Gagelonia’s frequent updates) to recover her and her crew safely; among others: a call for “media restraint”, a “directive” to the AFP to “share intelligence with the police”, and an assurance from Malacanang that it is believed that this incident “must not go unpunished”.

Let us now reflect on the other victims of war and crime. There are the innocent bystanders and people minding their own business — unaware that a trip to the market could turn so bad and unable to comprehend how the life of an eight-year-old son or daughter could so figure in the politics of religion and ideology. There are our professional warriors in uniform who just as they go into battle as statistics, quite often also come home in bodybags as statistics as well. Ces Drilon is in a class of victims filled almost exclusively by journalists. Unlike those Innocent Victims, she chose to face danger squarely in the eye. Unlike our warriors, she didn’t march into the jungles of Mindanao to destroy the enemies of our state. Ces Drilon went in with a “professional duty to vigilantly safeguard the public’s right to information”.

Ces Drilon’s abduction moved people to call for media restraint, share intelligence, and deliver punishment. As I ponder the horrific nature of an abduction by Islamic extremists, I try to regard this horror in the context of the broader base of victims — i.e., everyone who has fallen victim to or has had their lives impacted by violence and crime. It is from this context that I’d like to revisit those three calls I cited as the highlights of Ding’s latest update on the abduction.

Just a few days ago, I saw coverage of a hostage incident involving a bus load of people on ABS-CBN’s Bandila. Thankfully, the drama ended quite well. The thing about it that disturbed me was how reporters covering the incident behaved. As the hostages were being led out of the bus, you could see them pushing past the police while shoving their mikes and cameras into the faces of the clearly distraught victims. This is only the latest and least outrageous of behaviours exhibited by reporters. Dead bloodied bodies have always been a staple in Pinoy news programs. Doctors have even been hounded by the same mikes and cameras in their emergency rooms in the middle of a flood of casualties in the wake of a disaster.

Media restraint. Ces Drilon has been abducted. Of course “restraint” suddenly becomes relevant. But the more important question is: Is it generally relevant in our society? How is Juan de la Cruz’s corpse served up in (otherwise) living colour to the public exempt to this restraint we now call for?

I find it a bit interesting that an institution (or, more appropriately, an industry) that built much of its clout around the notion of its entitlement to information (glossing over the fact that it re-sells said information at a profit) is suddenly echoing a Government call in support of a Government operation. These are the same people who called out troop movements blow-by-blow over public airwaves as Government troops besieged rebel soldiers in Camp Aguinaldo in one of those post-Edsa1 “rebellions” back in the late 80’s (endangering the lives of the assaulting troops).

As is often said, the character of a person can be determined by how consistently he/she treats people of all walks of life.

Thus:

Is the need for “directives” to “share intelligence” and “punish crime” in “all out efforts” warranted everytime a high-profile person is the victim? Isn’t every endangered Filipino life entitled to an “all out effort”? Doesn’t every criminal deserve to be punished?

Ces Drilon is one of us — a producer of media content. Echoing cvj’s comment, I also say, I hope this ends well; as much as I hope that someday, all Filipinos can also expect similar expeditiousness, senses of urgency, and restraint from the Media when placed in a position of life-or-death dependence on Government services.

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