His stature may not be as high profile as the recent Sulu abduction of Ces Drilon and company, but Sherwin Nacua’s safety is no less important.

Faculty members of the Mindanao State University (MSU) are appealing to the kidnappers to release their captive who was kidnapped on June 26.

Nacua was with 22 (not 19 as earlier reported) other MSU faculty members in a jeepney bound for Iligan City when their vehicle was stopped by four armed men wearing military uniforms in Saguiaran, Lanao del Sur.

The kidnappers commandeered the vehicle towards Poona Piagapo town. But while traversing a dirt, narrow road, the jeepney stopped before a logging truck that had been stalled. The kidnappers then took from the passengers their mobile phones and ID cards.

Nacua, the only breadwinner in the family, is married to Elena, a housewife. They have three children.

No demands in exchange for Nacua’s release have been made, but talks circulating within the MSU campus reportedly suggest Nacua was abducted because he had flunked a student.”

To the abductors we say FREE SHERWIN NACUA NOW.

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.

However, with the AP having broken the embargo first and both Tribune and SunStar Daily Cebu running it, along with IHT, this writer is sharing these details, apart from having confirmed the same from my own sources in the mainstream working press in Manila:

Ces Drilon and her two-member news crew went missing Saturday, June 7 but our sources confirmed they had actually been “abducted” after ABS-CBN network receIved the ransom demand. The story was also broken to media by the ARMM police chief Joel Goltiao. A text message is making the rounds quoting a ransom price considerably higher than that being reported by the Daily Tribune.

It remains unclear but it is reported that a certain Mindanao State University Professor Octavio Dinampo was in touch or was travelling with the ABS-CBN team of Ces. My sources tell me Ces herself decuded last Saturday to go on the coverage based on the tip that an unnamed ASG personality was “going to surrender.”

From the media reports now emerging, on Sunday morning Dinampo picked them up from the Mindanao State University hostel, and armed men identified as being under a certain ASG commander Albader Parad intercepted them as their vehicle passed through Kulasi village, ARMM police chief Joel Goltiao said.

The Maimbung police chief reported sightings in the Kulasi area and of people with a video camera inside a vehicle.

The Daily Tribune report written by its editor in chief, the feisty Ninez Cacho Olivares says the newspaper’s “intelligence sorce Drilon and her group “were last tracked somewhere at the foothills of Mt. Tumatangis, Indanan Sulu.

“We convened the provincial crisis management committee to send feelers to negotiate with the abductors, but the abductors have not yet said anything,” ARMM police chief Goltiao said by telephone, according to an AP wire story.

The report gives this further background: “Abu Sayyaf is estimated to have 380 fighters, down from more than 1,000 eight years ago. It has been weakened by U.S.-backed military offensives that have led to the killing and capture of many of its leaders and members.”

“But police said the militants have continued to plot attacks, including against U.S. soldiers who have been providing counter-terrorism training to Filipino troops in Jolo and nearby provinces.

Washington has blacklisted Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist group for bombings, kidnappings and beheadings, such as the 2001 abduction from a resort island of 21 people who included three Americans.

Philippine military and police officials say the group — which seeks a separate state for the country’s Muslim minority — has received training and funds from al-Qaida militants in the past.”

My own sources from at least two other major publications confirm the other details while ABS-CBN is set to issue an official statement on this breaking news within the day.

This writer knows Ces personally, having worked with her at the government-run Maharlike Broadcasting System, now NBN Channel 4, before EDSA 1. She is married to painter Rock Drilon, a nephew of former senate president Franklin Drilon.

This turn of events adds a disturbing dimension to the vents in Mindanao, coming as it does after the spate of bombings in Zamboanga and the Lanao provinces, and the skirmishes in Basilan involving either MILF, MNLF or Abu Sayyaf elements.

Whether authorities call these incidents terrorist attacks or banditry, the aspect of even working journalists being dragged into the fray despite their being civilian ‘non-combatants’ speaks volumes about the volatility of the situation and the lack of control government has in the troubled South.

We are sure the official line is that government will never negotiate with kidnappers, but the reality is different with conduits and back channels always the alternatives.

The foremost consideration always is the safe recovery of the victims.

Here is my YouTube post on the breaking story:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmBv2LLUBLY