EDITORIAL - What happy ending?

Nine Filipino sailors have been repatriated without charges after staging a mutiny on a fishing boat in Mauritius and holding their Taiwanese captain captive. One national newspaper was ecstatic enough to banner the story thus: “Mutiny has a happy ending.”

We do not share its ecstasy. In fact we are aghast by its treatment of the story. What happy ending is it talking about? Did it consider the circumstances behind the incident, or is the sole basis for its happiness the fact that Filipinos once more made short shrift of the law?

In so many instances in the past, and prodded by like-minded media, Filipinos are quick to rise in protest whenever their compatriots, found guilty of criminal offenses in other countries, are meted penalties corresponding to their crimes under the laws of those countries.

In our perverted sense of nationalism, our attitude seems to be “Filipino right or wrong.” Well, how come we are never like that at home? How come we claw at each other at every opportunity and guise?

We are living in a community of nations, and while patriotism, of whatever kind, is okay at home, some allowance has to be made in deference to the patriotism of others, especially the patriotism they have with respect to the integrity of their customs and laws.

When Filipinos do wrong abroad and are rightly punished, we raise hell and complain. When Filipinos do wrong and escape punishment, like these nine sailors who broke one of the cardinal rules of maritime employment, we jump up and down in glee. What kind of people are we?

First of all, the nine Filipino sailors were undocumented. And while they claim to have been maltreated and abused, that did not justify the mutiny they staged. If that were so, then every ship on the high seas, probably with Filipinos on board, will forever be endangered.

There are avenues to pursue in case of grievances. Mutiny is not one of them. What these Filipino sailors did has cast a huge blackeye on the Filipino maritime manning industry, in much the same manner as that nursing board leakage did to the nursing profession.

From now on, maritime manning agencies will be wary of hiring Filipino seamen for overseas deployment on account of that mutiny. And yet, sadly, some of us, in perverted sense of patriotism, would call their escape from punishment a happy ending.