EDITORIAL – Scandal

So, what really happened in Argao last Monday? Was the media given the wrong report about the alleged arrest of three pairs of high school students “having sex” on the roof of a government building? Or did somebody get into hot water over the controversial story?

To recall, almost all media outlets had a field day last Tuesday reporting the supposed incident that happened the day before. The story was hot. It had all the elements of a scandal — juvenile students, sex, caught in the act, public place.

Suddenly, education and police authorities (the latter as source of the story as media could not have plucked it out of thin air) came out singing a different tune. They now say the incident did not happen, or was not a scandal because the students were not really having sex.

So, if the students were not doing anything, as the educators claim, or, as the police now say, were merely kissing, why the heck were they arrested then? Is doing nothing, or maybe a little smooching now a crime in Argao?

We suspect there is an attempt here to protect some people who otherwise could get into hot water as a result of the incident. But like all excuses born of panic, they are soon shot down by contradictions. Listen to the cops: “They were kissing on a beach near our station.”

Ah, so it was near the police station, within sight of the police. But wait. Doesn't the fact that the students were bold enough to be kissing on a beach near the police station suggest a certain confidence that what they were doing was not something illegal?

Okay, granted the kissing got, say, torrid enough to constitute a public scandal. Did the police have to arrest them and, in so doing, expose them to humiliation? Shouldn't they have been more considerate and exercised a little paternal authority like lecturing them instead?

Come on, there must be more to what happened after the incident than the police and educators would admit. To be sure, what happened, be it indeed sex or just kissing in public, is not to be applauded. But let the elders not sacrifice the young to protect themselves.