EDITORIAL - It could have been worse

You might have seen it online already; the video of several masked men leaving a car then forcing a man standing by the side of the road to get inside it. Then out of nowhere a man wielding a gun shouts at the masked men to come out of the car and surrender themselves.

However, it was not a real kidnapping incident. As explained by one of the masked men to the armed man, it was all a prank.

Now vloggers Mark Lester San Rafael, Mark Hiroshi San Rafael, and Eleazar Stephen Fuentes are facing charges filed by the armed man, who turned out to be Police Staff Sergeant Ronnie Conmingo of the Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group of the PNP for their misguided attempt at producing internet content.

We can only laud the policeman for his courage on one hand and but reproach those vloggers for their stupidity on the other.

A kidnapping is never to be taken lightly, kidnapping remains a serious crime and many have been snatched never to be heard from again. As pranks go, it is not funny at all.

Aside from causing panic, the prank itself would have painted our country in a bad light. It’s sad what some people are willing to do or how low they willing to stoop just for the sake of views.

When you think about it the three vloggers actually got off lucky with just being charged for alarm and scandal before the Las Piñas City prosecutor’s office as a result of this prank. It could have been much much worse considering Conmingo had a gun, was trained to use it, and was in a situation where he could have been justified in using it. 

We are sure lessons were learned. But we are almost afraid to ask; would the lesson have been learned better, or would the incident have become a more unforgettable example for other vloggers willing to try anything to produce riveting internet content, if someone had been hurt or even killed?