There is a certain professor and analyst who thought the triumvirate of the United States, Great Britain and France merely wanted a show of force when they launched airstrikes against Syria. Although partly right that the three major powers did display their military might, their action was more than muscle-flexing.
First of all, strong nations have a moral duty to stop someone like Bashir al-Assad from thinking he can get away with being a tyrant. This is particularly true when he gasses to death his own people, unleashing a lethal nerve agent on civilian men, women and children in rebel territory. This is one of the ugliest episodes of the long-running civil war in Syria that seems to have no end in sight. This grim prospect can be attributed to the interests of certain countries with their own agenda in Syria. Russia and Iran, which are supporting Assad, do not want Syria to fall into the orbit of US and Israel which obviously are on the side of the rebels and a freely elected government in Damascus.
Rice crisis
The Duterte government is dealing with the rice crisis heads-on. In order to cope with the dwindling supply and the spiraling prices of the basic commodity, the National Food Authority is deploying trucks selling NFA rice at a cheaper P39 a kilo to undercut prices by commercial traders who are selling rice at P42 to P45 depending on the variety.
Poor people welcomed the rolling rice stores. This is an effective counterfoil to those greedy rice traders hoarding their supply to drive up prices. Instead of profit the hoarders could now face the dire prospects of their stocks rotting in warehouses. Serves them right for their greed.
VP poll case
The camp of Vice President Leni Robredo sent us its side on the ongoing election protest case filed by former Senator Bongbong Marcos. We are running Robredo’s statement in this column in the interest of fair play. I will also publish Senator Marcos’ rejoinder when I get it.
On April 5, 2018, the camp of Vice President Leni Robredo filed a motion questioning the threshold being applied by the Presidential Electoral Tribunal for being twice higher than the 25 perent threshold actually used by the Comelec in the 2016 elections.
The threshold refers to the minimum amount of shade in the oval which the Vote Counting Machine will admit as a valid vote.
In the recount, the PET has insisted that for a voting mark to be treated as a valid vote, 50 percent of the oval must be shaded. Thus, any shade less than 50 percent is treated as stray for purposes of the recount.
It appears that the PET is using Rule 43(l) of the 2010 PET Rules of Procedure, which provided for a 50 percent threshold.
In the 2010 elections, the Comelec adopted a 50 percent threshold. Subsequently, however, it lowered the threshold.
What is alarming is that the threshold discrepancy would mean an election day result that is different from the PET result. It has already been reported that the Vice President is losing votes in her province of Camarines Sur. The recount has only been going for two weeks.
This is why Robredo asked the PET to be consistent with the Comelec’s 25 percent threshold. Her lawyers submitted to the PET the 2016 elections Random Manual Audit (RMA) Report. In this document, the Comelec stated that it adopted a 25 percent threshold for the 2016 elections.
And yet, the PET denied the Motion of the Vice President.
In its Resolution dated 10 April 2018, the PET said that it “cannot treat the Random Manual Audit Guidelines and Report as proof of the threshold used by the Comelec.”
With this decision, votes that originally passed the 25 percent threshold are now being classified by PET head revisors as stray. Worse, the PET wants the Vice President to take the burden of claiming her votes, instead of having rival candidate, Bongbong Marcos, register his objections.
The fate of the Vice President, and the millions of Filipinos who voted for her, now rests with the PET.