EDITORIAL - Echoes of yesterday?

Two labor rights activists who were earlier reported abducted last January 10 were found safe four days later.

According to Armand Jake Dayoha, 27, and his fiancée Dyan Gumanao, 28, they had just gotten off a ship in Pier 6 when unidentified men forced them into a vehicle.

They said they were blindfolded then interrogated by men who identified themselves as policemen. They were also moved from place to place before being left in Carmen town.

We are happy that they are safe.

It would actually not be a stretch to say that the attention on social media might have saved them. More so the video that has been circulating online purportedly showing masked men shoving Dayoha and Gumanao into a vehicle as people, including a security guard, looked on.

As things go, they were extremely lucky; people who get snatched don’t usually get found, or get found still alive anyway.

Happenings like these are supposed to be things of the past. Sure, every once in a while somebody still disappears, but for masked people to grab someone in broad daylight and while others are watching is reminiscent of the martial law years under the father of our current president.

It is a dark time we would rather not relive; so many missing people, so many incomplete families, so many unanswered questions.

Even this one, although it had a happy ending as far as abductions go, still has its fair share of questions. Who were the men who abducted Dayoha and Gumanao? Who ordered the abduction? What did they want? How come earlier reports denied any commotion in the pier that day?

Then, at the back of our mind: What would have happened to the two if there had been no public or social media attention? What would have happened to the two if no video of the incident had surfaced?

The police better be fair in their investigation of this incident. Some are even commenting that it should be relegated to someone else since the police themselves are being suspected of the act.

We thought incidents like these are behind us, but it seems that we may be wrong.