Fate of the 100 Filipino Seamen And A Challenge To Our Local News Networks.

Map of Gulf of Aden and Somali coast with positions of the hijacked ships

“Manila, Philippines – In response to the increasing number of Filipino hostages in Somalia, the Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered the Philippine Navy to go after the Somali pirates on the high seas of the Gulf of Aden. The flag-officer-in-command of the Philippine Navy has commissioned three Philippine Navy destroyers to proceed to the Gulf of Aden and engage the Somali pirates.”

How I wish that was the headline in CNN and BBC, but unfortunately, we’re sitting ducks in this situation. The Filipinos are at the losing end in every which way you look at it. We have an ill-equipped Philippine Navy, so don’t even count on the possibility of dreaming a daring high seas rescue.

We are not only at the mercy of the Somali pirates but we’re also at the mercy of the ship operators. If they decide to scuttle the ransom negotiations because they cannot afford the ransom, then woe to us and the crew’s family.

We are even at the mercy of international news agencies. How many times have you heard updates about the US cargo ship captain held hostage by the Somali? Then think about how many times have you heard updates about 100 plus Filipino ship crew hostages? The saddest thing is, even our local news channels doesn’t report much on the fate of the Filipino crews. There is not much effort on their part to deliver the news to the nation. I could remember that during the recent Iraq or Afghanistan wars (I could not remember which of the two), each local network even had their “contingent” news team to deliver on site updates and documentaries. On that situation, the Philippines doesn’t even have any “interest” at the ongoing wars, they just wanted to out do each other and have the bragging rights of “delivering service through news and information,even in dangerous situations”. Well, here’s a challenge to both networks, send some one over to Kenya or Yemen and gather info about the situation of the Filipino crews (I’m not even suggesting Somalia) and deliver service to the Filipino people that really matters, since the international news agencies doesn’t care much about the 100 plus Filipino hostages.

The only thing we can do now is just pray for the welfare of the Filipino crew and hopefully everything ends well for each of them.

Oh, an idea just came into my mind. If everything else fails, let’s rig a fleet of Ro-Ro’s with explosives and send them crashing to the Somali pirate’s ports and blow the smithereens out of them.

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Just an anecdote about Seamen:
I was once assigned to support one of our clients at Riga, Latvia, a Baltic State and formerly part of the U.S.S.R. I arrived at the Riga airport and waited in line at the customs and immigration desk for the usual question and answer portion of your travel.

The immigration officer, upon seeing my Philippine passport asked me in broken Russian-English tone, “So you’re Philippines right?”.

Of course I answered “Yes”, not really knowing if he was asking if I came from the Philippines or if I am a Filipino. It didn’t matter which of the two he meant to ask, coz I would reply Yes to either question.

The officer then gave a follow-up question… “Semen?”

I was dumb founded for a few seconds and didn’t know what to answer. I was thinking, this was a former Soviet state, who knows what they would make me do.

Thankfully, the officer upon seeing my blank reaction, rephrased his question, “Are you a ‘Semen’?”

I then got what he was asking and replied, “No, not a seaman. I’m a programmer. I work with computers”

Read more from the following sites:
NATO Piracy Shipping Center (http://www.shipping.nato.int/CounterPir)
Yahoo News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090419/ap_on_re_as/as_piracy_hostages__plight)