THE government was quicker to protest the portrayal of a fictional Philippine President (Datu Andrada) making improper advances on the fictional US Secretary of State (Elizabeth Mc Cord) in the American TV series “Madam Secretary” than to react to the presence of Chinese vessels at Benham Rise, a 13-million hectare mineral- and biodiversity-rich area in the undersea region near Aurora province, known to be part of our extended continental shelf. This was disconcerting to most of my friends. Andrada and McCord are fictional characters in a fictional TV series while Benham Rise is a real part of our geography. Had the fictional President been American, would the White House, the State Department or any reasonable American individual have made a mountain out of that molehill? I sincerely doubt it.