Credit Koreans

How interesting to learn that the South Koreans have built a mammoth container vessel for a French shipping magnate (“‘Megaship’ built in Subic shipyard,” Regions, 1/26/18).

Allan Macatuno’s report did not mention that the ship’s namesake, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, was a French poet, literary laureate and pioneering aviator who wrote “The Little Prince,” a well-known and well-loved classic the world over.

Macatuno instead preferred to report the humdrum words of President Duterte who didn’t give the South Koreans the proper credit for their great technological expertise and instead commanded them to care for the Filipino workers in their employ. Fair enough, since everyone knows the President’s penchant for patriotic pronouncements.

Still, I think a leader with some grace could have better acknowledged and thanked the South Koreans. Not just out of courtesy but also in view of the fact of the unsolved case of one of their businessmen kidnapped, killed, cremated and flushed down the toilet by our very own police.

CELESTE T. CRUZ, celestetcruz@gmail.com