A spade is a spade is a spade

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

06/12/2008

A spade is a spade is a spade. Or is it, when it comes to Filipinos, especially in the matter of ransom demanded by kidnappers?

Look at it this way: Ces Drilon and her TV crew were abducted by the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG).

First a news blackout was on, with ABS-CBN network refusing to even answer calls. That’s fine.

Some newspapers went along with the news blackout, which was, in essence, news management.

But it’s not called news management, nor self-imposed censorship. It was, so those who went along with the claimed “embargo” said, had to be resorted to, for the safety of the TV team. The way it came off was that if media printed this abduction story, the safety of Drilon and company would have been compromised. But how could their safety have been compromised when they were already in the hands of the kidnappers? Harm would not have come to the crew just because the news was out on her abduction.

Not to get me wrong. I and everybody else want Ces and her team back, unharmed. And definitely, the abduction should be condemned. But as almost everybody knows, the ASG doesn’t care a hoot about being condemned by the world. And what does this condemnation have to do with the suppression of news this big?

Reports, already verified with reliable sources, already stated that Drilon and company had been abducted by the Abu Sayyaf, yet even as there was reportedly communication between the hostages and network officials, the official line used was that they were missing. Those are two different terms, with different meanings. When one is missing, one does not quite know the whereabouts of the missing person, which was not the case in this instance of the hostages.

Even as official and identified sources, such as area command police chiefs say they had been abducted, the official line of missing is retained. The admission of the kidnapping came yesterday

Malacañang also used the same term: The ABS-CBN crew is missing, even when Drilon and company have been verified to be held “under the control” of the ASG.

So why can’t they say they have been abducted?

This is just about the same type of reporting used by the military in the case of a Marines officer, a Maj. Ben Dolorfino, who met with a Moro National Liberation Front leader in the hinterlands, claiming, even at the time that he was a guest of the MNLF; that a feast was being laid out for him and his men in their honor in the stronghold of the MNLF leader. Their guns were taken away. He was still on the telephone with media, denying that he was being held hostage by the MNLF, even when he could not leave the camp on his own. He was under the control of the MNLF, but was not a hostage, he insisted. That’s yet another euphemism being utilized.

In much in the same way, the network and the Palace are using the same style when commenting on the abduction.

There were early reports of the ASG demanding a ransom of P10 million. Again, officials who know damn well that there is that ransom demand, claimed this is still being verified, and as such is just rumor, even when negotiations are ongoing.

The ASG is known as demanding, and getting ransom in exchange for the freedom of the hostages, which is why this bandit group continues with its kidnapping spree. The better the victims are known, the higher the price for their release.

But there went the word again that this government, as well as the network, has a no-ransom policy, which is a big fat lie, as payment of ransoms appears to be the policy of this government, whether the victims are kidnapped abroad or here.

Definitely, ransom was paid in the case of the Filipino truckdriver Angelo dela Cruz. This was confirmed in a documentary aired over Discovery or National Georgraphic channel, where the American with Dela Cruz, was rescued by the US forces. He said Dela Cruz was released because of the ransom paid.

Now the term is not ransom, but billeting fees being charged by the Abu Sayyaf. It was also board and lodging fees for the release of the Italian priest Bossi, as it was in the case of Dolorfino.

The network and the Arroyo government can continue to claim that no ransom is to be paid out because, as claimed, if ransom is paid this will happen again and again.

Does it really matter what they tell the public? If ransom is paid for the release of kidnapped victims, the ASG and any other kidnap group knows that they pay ransom. The kidnapping will continue because such groups know that they will be paid the ransom demanded, even if this is denied.

Anybody for a spade?

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