‘No investigation, no right to speak’

It would pay for a sovereign nation like the Philippines to act more rationally rather than do so based on what its government officials or the general population feel, especially when faced with unexpected bad news three days before the country’s 121st Independence Day, such as the ramming by a Chinese boat of a local fishing vessel in Recto (Reed) Bank off Palawan in the contested South China Sea (West Philippine Sea) last June 9.

Understandably, the incident raised the hackles of Filipino authorities, from President Rodrigo Duterte to lawmakers, and from ordinary folk to netizens — all of whom, however, seemed to have initially lacked the correct information on what really happened in the disputed waters, making them react less logically to a national issue with possibly regional and, perhaps, global consequences.