"Sa libingan ng maliit, ang malaki'y may libangan"

A small boat carrying Filipino fishermen was rammed by a much bigger Chinese-owned boat. And as the former started sinking, the later fled and left the fishermen for dead.

A mere "maritime incident," the president said, and "maliit na incident lang," as recent senatorial elections topnotcher Cynthia Villar echoed.

In another time and place, perhaps it could've been. But not today. Not in the time when Chinese-owned businesses catering exclusively to Chinese citizens a lot of whom are working in the country illegally some in Chinese loan funded government projects are sprouting all over. Not in the time when the present administration has willingly shelved our legal victory in an international tribunal and has all but formally ceded our sovereignty over our seas and islands.

Certainly not in the time of Duterte making threats, albeit empty, to go to war against Canada when their waste ended up in our shores. And that threat came immediately.

And after days of silence, the president finally said something. Are we surprised that his statement and that of the Chinese government's sounded alike? There wasn't even much paraphrasing done. Duterte's statement almost sounded like an echo. Much like Senator Villar's.

The Inquirer reported today that Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said, "the UNCLOS does not mandate the rescue of distressed mariners in international waters if they will pose a security threat to their rescuers."

The much smaller Vietnamese vessel certainly did not see any security threat when they saw the sinking fishing boat and came to rescue the Filipino fishermen.

"Ganito ring araw nang agawan ka ng laya...," Amado V. Hernandez wrote decades ago. "Sa libingan ng maliit, ang malaki'y may libangan."