Tasteless, self-promoting Saturday Special column

I am writing to point out a serious and disturbing issue regarding the column “Too young to die” written by Mandy Navasero. The column was posted in the Saturday Special section on Oct. 17, 2015. It was about the passing away of my dear friend, Grizel Co.

According to Navasero, Grizel died of Japanese encephalitis (JE). It is true that Grizel recently traveled to Japan, but her doctors were never able to pinpoint the exact virus which caused her death. Her family opted not to have the autopsy performed. After talking with Grizel’s doctors, we learned that hundreds of viruses are known to cause viral encephalitis. The incubation period of the virus can last several days, even years.

Given the circumstances surrounding the situation, we are wondering how Navasero was able to conclude that the culprit was indeed JE. Does she have documents proving this? If so, we would like her to provide us with a copy of these documents.

We have not met Navasero personally, neither do we know what her intentions are. However, upon reading the column, all of us—Grizel’s family and friends—feel that the column trivialized the death of Grizel instead of giving her the proper respect that she deserves.

In that column, all the writer did was to promote her Batanes Photo Safari and her physician-friend Belen Dofitas, and to sell tawa-tawa pills. Isn’t this unethical? I know that the column has been posted under the Entertainment section, but it isn’t right nor acceptable to use the death of someone, as part of Navasero’s promotion strategy.

—MERCEDES CUA, mercedes_cua@yahoo.com

The Inquirer apologizes for running the insensitive and self-promoting column. —Ed.