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News photos depicted anxious friends reaching for Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña's hand. King Lear came to mind. ?Let me wipe it first,? the monarch tells Gloucester, who reaches to kiss his hand. ?It smells of mortality.?
The mayor abruptly flew to Boston. He'll be seeking a second medical opinion there on an ?egg-size? growth in his bladder. ?Yeah, it's serious,? he told reporters. ?It's like a grenade in me.?
Political foes multiplied under his no-dissent governance. ?They won't miss me,? Osmeña said. ?But I will return.? The final decision is up to Santo Niño (Cebu's ancient patron).?
In March 2002, Osmeña collapsed from hypertension. As he was trundled into the emergency room, a team of doctors stood by for another patient.
?Happenstance,? said some. ?Providence,? others insisted. Whichever, he survived.
?The Angel of Death has many eyes,? the Hebrew proverb says. The mayor looked into those eyes, as we all must one day, and walked away, Cebu Daily News noted on his return from sick leave. ?Has that long look endowed His Honor with a new sense of reality??
It should. Street cleaners, mayors, even presidents - all return to dust: ?All things pass, and we along with them,? Thomas á Kempis wrote. ?A man is here today. And tomorrow, he is gone. And when he is taken out of sight, he is quickly out of mind.?
Governance, however, is a ?24/7? job. Its full-time demands don't screech to a halt when illness strikes, whether in city hall, Malacañang or barangay (village).
Mortality and responsibility clamp a burden, especially on officials, to ?think the unthinkable.? Realism and prudence dictate that all must prepare the second just-in-case team.
In March 1957, acting foreign secretary Raul Manglapus cabled Vice President Carlos Garcia, then in Canberra, Australia. President Ramon Magsaysay's plane smashed into Mount Manunggal in Cebu. He should return to Manila immediately.
?The vice presidency is as useful as the fifth teat in a cow,? Harry Truman once scoffed. Lyndon Johnson concurred that: the vice presidency was a ?pitcher of warm spit.? Like Garcia, both became presidents.
In life, Numero Dos can suddenly be thrust into the Number One job. So, they must be selected with equal care. In ?thinking the unthinkable?: Numero Unos must train those who could come after them. They're not dispensable spare tires. After morning coffee, is Vice President Noli de Castro's remaining chore that of asking: ?How is the President's health today??
This lesson explains the deep unease roiling American voters today over a vice presidential candidate: the patently-unqualified Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Sure, she's good at shooting moose. But would you entrust to her the ?football? that presidential briefcase containing nuclear war codes?
Mayor Osmeña and wife handled his latest bout with illness with relative candor. He is, after all, a public official. People have a right to full information about those entrusted with official duties. That is the settled rule.
Corazon Aquino has stepped down from office. She remains a respected public figure. She herself broke the news about battling colon cancer. Thereafter, her family asked that her privacy be respected. The press heeded that request.
Ordinary citizens can be dragged willy-nilly into headlines. Tragedy, crime or some incident can thrust them into the limelight. ?Spare the children,? Senator Francis Pangilinan asked photographers scrambling to cover his stressed marriage.
Journalists must balance competing demands: for essential information, on one hand, and personal privacy, on the other. Reporting must be full yet sensitive.
In the last elections, Osmeña ventilated the health problems of a private citizen: the father of his opponent. He got flak for ?sickroom snooping.? Now the shoe is on the other foot. Some politicians, entertainment figures or kooks seek - or shun - publicity for their own ends. This is one more reason why media should ensure this right is fully protected.
Supreme Court Justice (later Chief Justice) Louis Brandeis first raised the privacy issue in ?Harvard Law Review? in December 1890. This is now 2008. Internet, meanwhile, has evolved a new form of ?citizen journalism.? And blogging is the new kid on Media Avenue.
Thus, Inquirer's ?Manual of Editorial Policies? devotes a whole section (1.6) to prevent intrusion into privacy. Other media groups here have seminal ethical guidelines. But they're not fleshed out as in Australia or the United Kingdom.
Kapisanan ng mga Brodkasters sa Pilipinas, for example, struggles with mayhem inflicted by block-time commentators. These are walk-in customers of airtime, not journalists. Most couldn't give a fig even if they read KBP's Code of Ethics.
Their abuses, however, are compounded by reckless journalists. This resembles ?drinking at last-chance saloon,? a British Press Council paper says. They invite government intrusion into freedom of press. That's already apparent in today's intrusive ?right-to-reply? bills.
Media ought to revisit the rule book before mortality stokes invasion of privacy controversies. These can develop into practical newsroom checklists. ?News organizations ought to explain their ethical decision-making to their (audiences),? Poynter Institute recommends.
As officials taste power, they often slip into the delusion they're irreplaceable. As a result, journalists are saddled with the unsought and thankless job of stripping away those blinders. ?The cemetery,? Charles de Gaulle once said, ?is full of indispensable men.?
