EDITORIAL - Let us not lose perspective

For all our sakes, let us not lose perspective over the execution of three Filipino drug mules in China. Let us not lose sight of the fact that China did not simply pluck three of our compatriots out of thin air and put them to death without cause.

The three Filipinos committed a crime, the kind of which China considers so serious it warrants the death penalty in that country. And while capital punishment is headed for the door in much of the civilized world, China has sovereign prerogatives that cannot be violated.

It is regretable for any life to be terminated before its time. But Philippine television has been playing up the story the wrong way, raising legitimate fears that the wrong signals may be sent to our countrymen.

In its consuming desire to over-sensationalize the issue, television has been directing too much focus on the consequence and hardly ever on the cause. It is tugging relentlessly at the emotions over the deaths but hardly ever touches on what lessons might be learned therefrom.

There is hardly ever any mention of the fact that the three Filipinos were aware of what they were doing, that they were never coerced into doing what they did. Awareness of these facts can lead but to one conclusion: They were not the victims television wants to portray them.

It is easy to say poverty drove them to take terrible risks, until the statistics prove otherwise --- that even very much poorer Filipinos who choose to earn their keep by honest and decent means far outnumber those who don't.

In all of media, it is television that not only has the widest reach but also the most instantaneous. To say it wields tremendous influence is an understatement. But is it fully aware of the tremendous responsibility that comes with such influence?

If its handling of the execution story were to be the only measure, then it would appear that it is sorely oblivious to the negative impact of its coverage, which tended to portray the three Filipinos as martyrs.

 The greater responsibility of television, and indeed of all of media, is to use all their energies and resources to make sure similar crimes do not happen, and that those who connived to make the crime happen get caught and punished for their participation.