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ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews / 14 March) –
It was one of those days when I once again boarded the PCG vessel. Armed with my Press ID, notebook, and phone.
I was there as a journalist—to document the continuing search operations, to write down names, facts, and timelines. That was my intention.
But this coverage did not just stay in my notebook. My body remembers the nausea of rough boat rides. My heart can still hear the victims’ families’ wails and cries.
And as bodybags were unloaded from the boat to the awaiting truck, sobs and tears pierced my ears, and my composure cracked. A hijabi tells us about the greatness of her eldest brother, who came home in a sealed black sack.
Through tears, she keeps asking why? I turn away—quietly hiding the grief rising in my own eyes.
A young mother stands lost in the crowd, anxiously waiting for word about her missing child. Her husband’s body was recovered days prior, but hope, however faint, remains in her chest like a fire.
I also remember the divers, whose faces and movements were worn with tiredness. Each dive was not just a search operation—families achieving closure was their mission.
Forty days later, a number of families are still waiting. They are not just names in my notebook. They are fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, children, and siblings, whose stories I listened to while they were breaking.
Forty days have passed. New stories have taken over the headlines. But the grief of these families, and the stories they entrusted to me, I will carry for a long, long time.
(Queenie Casimiro is a journalist based in Zamboanga City, who has spent years writing stories across Zamboanga Peninsula and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi. She started as a reporter and eventually became News Chief of ABS-CBN’s regional stations in Cotabato City and Zamboanga City. After the network shutdown, she continued to contribute stories for ABS-CBN’s national platforms and serves as a correspondent for DZMM. She recently joined MindaNews as a contributor. A firm advocate against disinformation, she believes journalism is about seeking and speaking the truth).
[BAYI-LINES is part of the Safety Training Series of the Media Impact Philippines project implemented by the Mindanao Institute of Journalism (MinJourn), publisher of MindaNews, in partnership with the International Media Support (IMS) with funding from the European Union and the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.]
