EDITORIAL - An accountable offense needs to be accounted

The young woman who "kidnapped" herself and caused public alarm and scandal in Cebu has remained uncharged as this was written, despite the authorities saying they will at the soonest possible time. Have the authorities had a change of heart. Have the bleeding hearts gotten to them with pleas that the despondent woman might try something even more drastic to herself?

It is entirely possible, of course, for the woman to do something crazy, as in fact she already did with a caper that prompted a massive police operation that resulted in unnecessary losses to government in terms of material assets and precious man-hours. That alone makes her eligible for psychiatric evaluation, and help if warranted. But that doesn't mean she should be allowed to escape responsibility for what she did.

If it is found that she needs professional help, then maybe the charges against her may be dropped. But only after such a determination is made. The cart can't be placed before the horse. She has to answer first for her offenses. Or at the very least, the process to make her answer should first be set in motion before any of the applicable interventions are made.

What she did was not only bad, it can even be worse if it begins to set an example for other young people to follow. In fact it is even possible that the woman herself took after a similar incident in Luzon where a teenaged girl also disappeared only to surface later and admit it was all part of an internet challenge for any boy or girl to stage a seeming kidnap or abduction.

What is happening has to be nipped in the bud. Making fun of law enforcement and jokingly disturbing the peace are counterproductive to the public's right to go about their daily lives without mischievous interference. The fear that the girl might do something crazy, while requiring serious consideration, cannot be lumped together with the right of the state to enforce order.

To let the incident pass as if it did not even happen only adds to growing list of issues that, while requiring official action, have not been acted upon, thereby moving Philippine society ever closer to a state of near-anarchy. And if the authorities simply fold their arms on this "little thing" what is to prevent them from continuing to fold their arms over matters of real and larger consequence?