Friday, June 13, 2008 Malilong: Hope for happy ending in Ces Drilon incident By Frank Malilong The Other Side
THE Moro bandits who abducted Ces Drilon are not dumb so unless someone on the other side does something stupid, they will in due time release the ABS-CBN journalist and her crew.
The kidnappers have so far been unheard from so one cannot say for certain what their motives were/are but we all have to agree that Drilon’s abduction has again put the spotlight on a group that has, if you believe official reports, been on the run.
Now we’re paying attention again to a band that has all but been written off. If for this fact alone, the bandits have already been paid handsomely for their trouble. Ransom money would only be icing on the cake.
Drilon was one of those whom the police arrested and handcuffed for refusing to heed the advice to clear the way for the government assault against those involved in the so-called Manila Pen mutiny. She is therefore no stranger to danger.
People outside, and even some in, the media industry are asking if Drilon and her crew had not brought their plight upon themselves. Sulu is a known danger zone, they point out, and Drilon was dealing with a group that has a rich history of abducting non-combatants including journalists.
“It’s just like entering a pit of rattlesnakes,” said a friend. “You can’t go in and expect not to be bitten because you don’t mean any harm to the reptile.”
Well, you can always blame the one who didn’t cover the pit or kill the snakes.
Deposed president Erap Estrada and an international media organization share this mindset. The media group slammed the Philippines as a place where journalism continues to be an “incredibly dangerous profession” while Erap, in typical simplistic fashion, said Mindanao would have been safe and peaceful now had Muslim rebels, whose camps he ordered bombed, not been not allowed to return to their lairs.
I do not know about that. Every now and then, we come across reports of mayhem in US schools but I still have to hear any responsible organization chiding the American government for continuing to make going to school an extremely dangerous proposition. Erap’s ranting, on the other hand, deserves no further comment.
When I was a cub reporter back in the seventies, I was taught that one of the virtues of a good journalist is enterprise. You have to be imaginative, even daring, in dealing with news sources in order to get the facts that would complete your story.
What I was not told was that sometimes enterprise could put you in harm’s way. The smell of a good story is, to a journalist, like musical notes from the Pied Piper. Drilon and/or ABS-CBN were told of a big event that could result in a scoop, evaluated the risks involved and pursued the promised story. Alas, along the way she became the reported instead of the reporter.
ABS-CBN is said to be working feverishly, albeit quietly, to secure the release of its people. The military, the police and the politicians should respect and not interfere in the network’s efforts because they are the ones who are comparatively more likely to do something stupid that could endanger the lives of Drilon and the others.
Drilon’s kidnapping is a sorry chapter but our book can still have a happy ending. In fact, any other (ending) is unacceptable.
