Susan “Toots” Ople is the youngest daughter of the late Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas F. Ople. She has a Sunday column in Manila Bulletin’s Panorama Magazine and Tempo and two public service radio programs, “Bantay OFW” at DZXL RMN 558 every Monday to Friday, 12.30-2 pm and “Global Pinoy” at DWIZ 882 every Saturday from 5.30-6.30 pm.
Confucius says, “When anger rises, think of the consequences.”
by Susan Ople
First posted in susanople.com
Filipinos around the world sympathize with the family of Hung Shih-cheng, a 65-year old Taiwanese fisherman killed in the high seas when officers of the Philippine Coast Guard aboard a maritime patrol ship fired at the fishing vessel where the old man was.
Whatever the outcome of the formal investigation, a man’s life perished, and his family led by widow Hung Chen A-lun cry out for justice.
I recall the passionate portrayal of Ms Nora Aunor in that movie where her younger brother was shot to death by an American soldier while rummaging through a heap of garbage. The soldier said he thought the boy was a wild boar. That was cinema. This is real. Raw emotions stoked by Taiwanese media’s relentless reportage have affected 87,000 innocent Filipino workers in Taiwan.These Filipinos who have yet to see the innards of our maritime coast guard fleet, now squirm with discomfort, if not fear, while earning their keep.
