FRANCISCO S. TATAD
The Vietnamese government must have been pleasantly surprised when after apologizing for the incident last Sepember, in which two Vietnamese fishermen were killed while poaching inside Philippine waters, President Rodrigo Duterte last Wednesday personally sent off the five other illegal fishermen who had been arrested and detained after the incident. Indeed, the killing was regrettable, as every other killing is, but DU30 has never publicly apologized for any killing before, so Hanoi has every reason to be grateful.