EDITORIAL — The damage we don’t see

These days there seem to be more married people caught having an extramarital affair.

Last Monday morning, a 47-year-old former Overseas Filipino Worker and his 21-year-old girlfriend were arrested inside the woman’s house in Barangay Looc, Mandaue City.

“Team-building” was also used as an excuse by a married business process outsourcing worker to spend time with his lover in a Cebu City motel a week ago. While in Carcar City a man was also caught by his wife with his other woman inside a hotel.

We use the word “seem” because we aren’t really sure if the number of cases are increasing or if it’s still the same, only that it is becoming easier to track the messages as well as movements of some people, or because some spouses now feel empowered or angered enough to go after their cheating partners.

Of course, we don’t want to pry into their affairs, literally. But with more and more incidents of infidelity becoming fodder for news we just can’t help but wonder if there are values not being taught or observed anymore.

We also don’t want to be preachy and say that married people must resist temptation and must not cheat. We really aren’t privy to the reasons --whether personal, social, economic, or whatever-- that lead some spouses to betray their partners, or alibis that lead hearts to stray; the world isn’t just black and white after all.

But what we are sure of is this; the family is the basic unit of society in any country. It is the family that molds the character, beliefs, and values of any person, especially the younger and more impressionable ones. These are the same ones who will eventually grow up to build the nation as well as raise families of their own, passing on their own values and beliefs to their children.

And extramarital affairs weaken families. Especially when the kids find out what the adults are doing on the side. And when families are weakened, the consequences may not be felt or seen immediately, but they do greater damage down the road.