Just about two hours ago, a hostage drama involving 32 children and 2 teachers in a school bus, in the Philippines, ended without any bloodshed.
The alleged hostage taker, a certain Jun Ducat, who is also the founder of the day care center where those children attended, peacefully surrendered after a 10-hour stand-off that stole the spotlight, having the world media covering every bit of the crisis.
What did he want from all that media-grabbing attention? Based on initial reports, all he wanted was for a change targeting on the corruption in the government and a demand for a better education for all those poor children.
Oh yeah, those poor little children! You don’t really know what the guy’s real motives are because apparently this is not the first time that he pulled a stunt of this sort. As I watched the coverage on TV, I am appalled and infuriated by the heartlessness of these people, putting the lives of these poverty-stricken children in danger. Mind you, even in the midst of crisis, most of them didn’t even have a clue on what was happening. Someone inside the school bus where all these children were hostaged, was threatening to blow-up everyone inside with a hand grenade yet the picture you see on TV is that of those hostaged children waving to the spectators and the cameras, smiling as if they really weren’t in a hostage situation. I am just glad that it ended without any of those children being hurt physically. The emotional trauma for those who knew that their lives were in grave danger, though, is far more devastating.
Whatever the real motive was for the hostage drama, I'm sure it served its purpose. The timing of this hostage-taking crisis is a little vicious knowing that the Philippine political scene is just heating up for the fast-approaching polls. The hostage-taker admitted that he has no intent of hurting any of those children. Then, why put them in harm’s way?
It’s ironic for one to seem to care about giving some children an improved quality of education and not care about the horror that the situation brings about to those young innocent lives. What if it didn’t end up the way it ended up? What if some outsider with an ill will sabotaged the situation and resulted in the demise of those little children? I tell you, if I was one of the parents, and God forbid, I probably wouldn’t be as forgiving and as hopeful as those parents who were paying close vigil on the sidelines, waiting for the moment when the crisis is resolved peacefully. I just don’t think I have the heart and the tolerance to withstand all that!
Now, I’m a little curious. Was the peaceful end of the crisis a result of perhaps some kind of remorse of conscience on the hostage taker’s part or was it a mere predetermined conclusion to a stunt that hinged on the political interests of a few puppet masters? Tell me please, for the sake of those poor innocent children.
No comments:
Post a Comment