You must have come across news sites here and abroad that publish “What we know so far” articles when there are developing stories. Rappler tried a different approach to this kind of summary-type reporting on what happened to the Filipino boat that sank in Recto Bank, within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea. 

On Thursday, June 13, at 10:19 pm, we uploaded a video on our Youtube channel: How alleged Chinese ship sank Filipino fishing vessel in West PH Sea. The following day, in the afternoon, we embedded the video in a story page. You can watch it here: 

A lot of things have happened since then, including President Rodrigo Duterte’s dismissal of what happened as a “maritime incident” – “Banggaan lang ng barko ‘yan” – and Malacañang’s refusal to summon Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua to discuss what happened. “Bakit, may kasalanan ba ito, kailangan bang magpaliwanag sa atin?” Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said on June 18, or 5 days after he said the Philippines could cut ties with China over the incident. 

Cabinet members are giving the media conflicting statements, and some of them have changed tunes over the several days that the President was silent on the matter, while there’s palpable outrage among citizens over the administration’s leniency towards China. 

How does an administration, exposed many times for fabricating stories, manage this crisis? They attack online. They attack the credibility of anybody whose truth shines the light on their lies. They cast doubts on the messengers who convey what the truth-tellers say. 

So far, their line of attack has been: the incident must have been staged to put China in a bad light, so that when President Duterte approaches this issue in an objective way, he will be dragged down, and people will be roused to call for his ouster. Because, look, how were the fishermen so sure it was a Chinese ship? (They’ve been fishing there for decades.) Why didn’t a single fisherman have a smartphone to record what happened? (They are that poor. Besides, there’s no signal in the high seas.) Why was a Vietnamese vessel conveniently nearby to rescue them? (They were anchored kilometers away, two of the Filipino fishermen had to row to approach them after hours of just holding on to a broken boat to stay afloat.) Why did the United States embassy issue a statement on the incident? (Because that’s what allies do.) 

Rappler’s 41-second video must have been powerful enough in stirring public sentiment, that the administration’s online army tried to demolish it first: how come, they said, was Rappler able to put together that material on June 13, when the fishing crew of Gem-Ver got home in Occidental Mindoro in the evening of June 14? Looks like Rappler followed a script even before talking to the fishermen. 

I have news for them: a self-respecting newsroom would’ve done the same thing after making sense of information that have become available. And we had  enough between 5:08 pm of June 12, when Secretary Delfin Lorenzana issued the statement about the incident, and early evening of June 13, when the fishermen, in the custody of the Philippine Navy, already had the opportunity to call their relatives – before they were cleared to travel home. You can get the full story here: TIMELINE: Sinking of Filipino boat in West PH Sea by Chinese ship. 

To question that, Duterte’s defenders are not only being ignorant, they are being desperate.

And now, what does their online army do? They are trying to discredit the fishermen, when all they are asking is for their government, their President, to stand up for them and ask China to hold the owner and crew of Yuemaobinyu 42212 accountable. Their story holds water, they are oblivious to politics, they just want to feel that they aren’t “slaves” of another country within their own shores.

The issue is not why the media is picking up the fishermen’s story. The issue is not whether China’s ramming of the Filipino boat was intentional or unintentional. There’s only one issue: that the Chinese crew left the Filipinos to drown, when international laws spell out duty to rescue persons at sea. 

But if President Duterte and his administration don’t take up China even on that one, then he and his abandonment of his fishermen will become an issue that maybe even an online offensive won’t be able to downplay. 

Bookmark Rappler’s special coverage page on the sinking of the Philippine ship in the West Philippine Sea.