for bloggers atbp. on the "never ending story of faye"

I was amazed at how this story affected so many people. I am from DOST and I posted the media advisory as part of my job. I guess so many lessons can be learned from this story... for the writers and journalists, for us in government, for bloggers and for faye and her mom, cathy. I did my job in DOST as part of the team who validated their claims. Now, I am posting this message on my own. While it took us sometime to verify the truth behind each and every detail written in the story, I knew then that there was something wrong with the details given by faye's mother when I interviewed her. Truly, Patricia could have used her interview with mother and daughter to verify from independent sources. This is the most logical thing to do....and what is actually taught in journalism school. But let's give patricia a break, as Dick Pascual has mentioned in his column today, "Everybody commits mistakes."

I am writing to thank you guys for having the brains and the guts to question or simply write about issues like this one. We in the government recognize our shortcomings. We try our best to promote the achievements of the young, talented youth in science and technology. But we need the media, the private sector, the NGOs and people like you to help us. I have written a lot about these young kids and also about our brilliant scholars (like Jeffrey Hidalgo, a DOST scholar-graduate) but only a few publish such stories. I hope this "never ending faye story" will change the mindset of the media people.

Lastly, I'd like to request everyone to just try to understand faye's situation now that the truth has been revealed. She is just a child and whoever and whatever prompted her to do what she did, let us think that she still has many growing up years ahead. Let us hope and pray that this does not get too deeply into her psyche and affect her character and disposition later on.