Apathy as crime (Abandonment of helpless persons under the Revised Penal Code)

**lc1** · May 30th, 2009 12:48 PM

“The father, Ramon Eugenio, wept inconsolably in the small church room next to where the two small coffins lay containing the young bodies of his 3-year-old son Franco and his 2-year-old nephew Anton.

Their first family outing, on what turned out to be an overloaded boat that was to take them to Tamaraw Beach in Oriental Mindoro, had turned into a grim tragedy that saw the boat overwhelmed by waves.

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What was equally rending to Ramon and his wife Monica who survived the accident was that as the boat was going down, two other vessels passed by—and did not help.

The vessels’ passengers, instead, just took pictures of the sinking outrigger motorboat carrying Ramon, his family and relatives, and scores of other people.

“I don’t know if they were afraid of being overloaded,” Ramon told the Philippine Daily Inquirer during the wake at a church in Makati City. “I was hoping they would give us help by throwing life vests but they took pictures, they took videos.”[1] [emphasis supplied]

It is hard to believe that there was something more tragic than the capsizing boat overloaded with screaming, shrieking and drowning adults and children. Yet the indifference of the passers-by is arguably more terrible.

Why wasn’t the need to help instinctive? Are we developing a culture of prioritizing bragging rights to obtaining videocam footage than to any sense of humanitarian responsibility?

We hope the apathetic passers-by can be investigated and prosecuted to curb any rising tendency to abandon the duty to help others in need. Yes, it is a duty otherwise it won’t be deemed a crime under Arts 275 and 365 of the Revised Penal Code.

Read the rest on The Legally Inclined Blog.

[1] Lopez, Allison, Virola, Madonna (2009, May 25). ‘2 boats passed by, but did not help’. Retrieved May 25, 2009, from Inquirer.net Web site: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquire...t-did-not-help