IT was all a misunderstanding.

This may be a politically-correct reaction from the Philippine National Police leadership to the brouhaha over the reported harassment of the widow of an onion farmer who committed suicide, but that is an understatement as well. It was an embarrassing encounter for all the parties involved.

There is no denying that misleading media reports triggered the whole mess that prompted DILG Sec. Benhur Abalos to react drastically against Virgilio Sison, his provincial director in Pangasinan. Mr. Abalos relieved him from his post on the spot without fully ascertaining the circumstances behind Mr. Sison’s actions and motives for ordering the investigation based on the widow’s alleged claim before the Senate committee.

In today’s parlance, what prompted Mr. Abalos to react the way he did was fake news.

Mr. Sison was right to look into the widow’s claim, per media reports, that five farmers committed suicide on account of losses incurred at the height of the onion supply issue due to smuggling and manipulation of rise in prices in the market while farmgate prices were low. Something was amiss, indeed.

Common sense dictates that if her husband’s suicide happened two years ago, how could it have been caused by today’s onion supply and price issue?

Clarification was needed, indeed, to determine whether the widow’s public statement to the Senate was about her situation as the onion farmer today after her husband committed suicide or did she say that her husband’s death was caused by problems in onion farming?

It was also logical for Mr. Sison to call on the Bayanbang police to probe the impressions created by the news. Organizationally, the DILG has supervision over the PNP. What he didn’t expect was perhaps the manner the probe was being done – with nightly visits. It was understandable for the widow to scream help from perceived harassment of law enforcers.

After all is said and done, both media and government should learn a lesson in trusting and sharing information and dealing with it. Mr. Abalos overreacted to what appeared to be a genuine concern for a poor widow. The Bayambang police adopted the wrong tact for the probe. The widow didn’t bother to qualify and clarify her statements with the media that there were no five onion farmers in Pangasinan that committed suicide.

In Mr. Sison’s case, he was merely doing his job that didn’t necessarily require clearance from the top. It was an initiative on his part to resolve a local issue with conflicting facts.

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