Monday, September 01, 2008 Editorial: A little bit of patience, a little bit of truth
IT'S one week since the Philippine Air Force C-130 Hercules plane disappeared into the depths of Davao Gulf. Until now, search teams have not found it.
It's been a week of search that found only debris and human parts smashing hopes of finding a survivor.
It's been a week of confusing news, national television news that is.
Let us continue our volunteerism to extend help to the authorities who are trying to make sense of all that has happened.
Let us not be sidetracked by the news that's coming out on national television, like the arrival of the nine-plane crew's remains in Metro Manila inside nine sheer white coffins draped with the Philippine flag, and the earlier declaration that the plane has already been found. Since the crash happened in Davao, go ask your trusted radio reporter, he should know better.
Indeed, with no airplane and no identifiable, whole human body, there's not much for the media to cover, but may this not be a reason to distort truth just for the sake of coverage.
The important work here is to find the main part of the plane, fuselage, wings, and tail, if possible retrieve bigger parts if not the whole bodies of the nine air force personnel and two army soldiers on board.
Find out what really happened. The news should just come as a consequence of this and must not be more important than the search.
What we have witnessed on the first week of the search was a disheartening reality that sometimes, making the news and making it in the news is more important than the truth. May we not fall into that direction again.
The C-130 plane is huge, bigger than most other passenger plane hereabouts, but Davao Gulf is even bigger. In a situation where not one witness can point to an exact location where it fell, the search will take a bit longer.
Let's be patient. If we know the relatives of those who were riding the plane, let's be more compassionate. We believe no one wants to receive an empty coffin, never mind if it's sparkling white and covered with the Philippine flag.
