Despite mosquito bites and a damaged toenail, Ces Drilon was her usual perky self upon coming out of a nine-day ordeal in a bandits’ lair in the jungle of Sulu. It was good to see her smiling.
It was touching seeing her crying and sharing her reflections of her harrowing experience. I was touched with that part when Ces said something like”You don’t realize how important something is until you are on the verse of losing it.” She said many times during their captivity, they were on the verge of being killed.
Few current reporters could match the color and excitement of Ces’ career. Until last June 8, she seemed to be always at the right place at the right time. One of the Ces’ memorable coverage was the assassination of Manila Police Officer Joe Pring in the late 80’s. She and her crew were along Magsaysay boulevard in Sta mesa when they heard shots. Then they saw the assassin fleeing. Her cameraman got out of their vehicle and started shooting. The assassin stopped, pointed a gun at them and demanded that he turn over the film to him.
I remember Ces narrating later how he pleaded with the gunman not to shoot them. “May mga anak ako (I have children.)”.
Ces’ impeccable timing was again at work on Nov. 19, 2007 when she went to the Makati City Hall to cover the testimony of Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim in the trial of the Magdalo officers that include Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.
She arrived late just when Trillanes and other Magdalo officers walked out of courtroom.. When the elevator she was riding in opened at the 14th floor, Magdalo officers rushed in. While other reporters were prevented from getting into the elevator with the officers, Ces was there in the innermost corner perplexed by the commotion.
It didn’t take long for her to realize that she was in the midst of an explosive story that later ended with her fighting off police attempt to handcuff her and other journalists who stayed put at the Manila Peninsula to cover closely the unfolding event in defiance of police orders.
It was all to bring the news to the public, which is what being a journalist is.
The kidnapping of Ces and her team which that included her cameramen Jimmy Encarnacion and Angelo Valderama and university professor Octavio Dinampo brings the question how far a reporter should pursue a story.
There are no fast rules except that there is no story worth dying for.
Ces that one thing she learned from her nine-day ordeal was to “listen to your boss”, Maria Ressa, head of of ABS-CBN current affairs.
Ces said, “I want to make it clear na while my office knew to a certain extent what my story was, mayroong mga instructions na sinuway ko. Naging matigas ang ulo ko at one point and I disregarded some warnings, and I put the lives of my team in danger because of that.”
She said it was a “sobering” experience for her. “I always go after a story sometimes not thinking of my loved ones, my mom, my kids. I guess kailangang maisip ko din na may nagmamahal sa akin at nasasaktan sila. It was so irresponsible in a way to do that to my children and my mother, my sisters and brother too to put them that ordeal like that.”
It’s easy for reporters to develop an exaggerated sense of importance. We take ourselves too seriously. We nurture the illusion that the world will stop if we don’t come out with our story.
Mitch Alboom, a sportswriter who had his own epiphany during his weekly sessions with a dying professor, shared in his bestselling book, “Tuesdays with Morrie”: “I had grown used to thinking readers somehow needed my column. I was stunned at how easily things went on without me.”
That’s sobering.
Kaya, be careful. Andam kaw gid.
glad Ces is back… thanks ellen for the update. i’m sure it was terrifying but an ultimate learning experience. our prayers have been heard.
“Imagine a world in which there are no stories of murder in newspapers, everyone is so omniscient that no house ever catches fire, no husband deserts his wife, no pastor elopes with his choir girl, no king abdicates his throne for love, no man changes his mind, and everyone proceeds to carry out with logical precision a career that he mapped out for himself at the age of ten ─ good-by to this human world! All the excitement and uncertainty of life would be gone. There would be no literature because there would be no sin, no misbehavior, no human weakness, no upsetting passion, no prejudices, no irregularities and, worst of all, no surprises.” ─ Lin Yutang
Ces, naiiba ka talaga…pinabilib mo ako noong standoff diyan sa Pen…lalo mo akong pinabilib sa iyong kababaan ng loob pagkatapos ng iyon kidnapping ordeal sa Sulu.
Mabuhay ang lahat ng mga tigasing journalists sa buong Pilipinas!
Who get some medals again? Those young nice boys deserve medals of good conduct, too. No one strike policy here?
valdemar,
i remember you ask me about discussing our economy. maybe we can connect this topic.
a policy such as employee training on risk prevention, training in what to do in a hostage situation to minimize losses due to kidnap or ransom. or simply , employer can protect its business losses by purchasing a business insurance with K and R policy.
but someone said, K and R motivates more kidnapping. then insurance for public safety is the responsibility of our security forces. but the government will not pay.
when there is poverty, inflation and lawlessness in our country, there is a high probability of kidnapping to occur. that’s a fact… ( thanks God Ces is back)
if our security forces cannot prevent and come up with solution , this will further hurt our economy- the tourism industry, hospitality and foreign direct investment. i still believe that our government, current and future must implement a solid process for efficiency.
Now the whole drama is unfolding on this kidnap for ransom. Kung totoo man na yung Mayor at ang anak niya ang pinuno ng kidnapping, ano ang ginagawa ng mga military at tauhan ng gobiyerno na katulad ni Puno na umaaligid sa mga kidnappers.
Salamat naman at nakabalik na sila Ces sa ating piling. May this serve as a lesson to Ces and the other journalists to be extremely careful in finding their resource people. To be prepared with enough security when they go to risky places like Sulu! Mabuti hindi sila pinatay. If they were lucky this time, next time, they may not be as lucky.
An ounce of prevention is always better than a pound of cure!
For sure Ces and company will have a different outlook in life from hereon. Definitely a much better one, I hope.
No “strike”, as Valdemar said. Paano ay utos lang para takutin ang Lopez, pagkakwartahan at gamitin kay big uncle to ask for more anti-terror funding.
No one, no job is indispensable, palaging may papalit. So, take care of ourselves first as life is too precious to lose over running for something considered big.
“Tuesdays with Morrie” is one of my favorite books.