ATTACK

Written on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 6:11 pm | by Marck Ronald Rimorin

Did Ces Drilon “deserve” to be kidnapped?

As an observer of the media, I think Ms. Drilon is in a very unenviable position. Save for her tainted public image following the Manila Peninsula siege, she represents one-half of an elitist corporatist media. But let me make one thing perfectly clear at this point: I am not a journalist. I’m just a blogger, a writer, a “commentator,” and for all intents and purposes an “usisero.” I do not know what drove Ces Drilon to “risk her life unnecessarily” going to Sulu.

Which begs me to ask the question again: did Ces Drilon “deserve” to be kidnapped?

The answer is no.

Consider this piece of “commentary” as an attack on every single person who says that Ms. Drilon “deserves” what she is going through today. While Ces deserves to be chastised for whatever journalistic lapse she made in her career as a journalist, those who pick on her bones today should be chastised and criticized for the lapses they make as human beings.

This isn’t a case of “if you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all.” Where there’s information, someone - be it Ces Drilon or anyone else - has to report and disseminate that information. Greed for exclusive information must be moderated, and that is a responsibility and a lesson that should be internalized by media outfits.

We could, for hours and days, debate on whether or not Ces Drilon made a serious mistake in going to Abu Sayyaf territory without military escorts. We could debate on whether or not Ces Drilon exercised her duties and responsibilities as a journalist with prudence and tact. Yet what is not debatable is whether or not Ces Drilon “deserves to be released.” While some of us rant and rave about how Ces “deserved to be kidnapped,” we forget Ces Drilon as a mother, as a daughter, as a wife, as a human being who does not deserve to be kidnapped by bandits, much less be talked about in such a derogatory manner by non-journalists, or by people who hide under the skirts of their own anonymity while taking their jabs at a perceived enemy.

The attack is rather simple: if you wouldn’t wish upon your worst enemy that he or she be kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf, then I sure you wouldn’t wish that upon a perceived “enemy” like Ces Drilon. While I do not like Ces Drilon the reporter, it is not just Ces Drilon the reporter who happens to be in the clutches of bandits right now.

It’s Ces Drilon the mother. The daughter. The wife. And for heaven’s sake, Ces Drilon the human being. We all are entitled to what we think of Ces Drilon, and I’m sure that it can wait until such time that she’s free, and she can defend herself against whatever shat we throw at the fan directed to her.

That, ladies and gentlemen, in case we all forget, is the kind of objectivity and fairness that we so demand of media.

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About The Author: Marck Ronald Rimorin is a twenty-something blogger, "critic," and writer from Baguio City, and currently works in Metro Manila as a writer. His personal blog is at The Marocharim Experiment

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Comments

4 Responses to “ATTACK”

  1. Anna on June 17th, 2008 8:45 pm

    Re: Which begs me to ask the question again: did Ces Drilon “deserve” to be kidnapped?

    The answer is no.

    Agree.

    As to I do not know what drove Ces Drilon to “risk her life unnecessarily” going to Sulu.

    That question is double edged! Going to Sulu is risking her life unnecessarily? That would be like telling Europeans not they would be risking their lives going to the Philippines. Kidnappings do happen in Manila, mass murders, etc. There is no difference between Sulu and Manila on that score.

  2. Patricio Mangubat on June 17th, 2008 9:37 pm

    I agree with Anna. Kidnappings happen everywhere. For as long as there are people who don’t want to work their asses off and just rely on brute force to get money, there will always be thugs doing all these things.

  3. Ding G. Gagelonia on June 18th, 2008 7:44 am

    That perspective resonates, loud and clear. As for the abductors they more than deserve what happens to them next.

  4. Pochero on June 18th, 2008 8:44 am

    RCBC massacre happened in Luzon, not Mindanao.

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