September 1, 2014 Edition

The crisis that began with the standoff on August 28 in the Golan Heights is over for now. In the middle of the night, while Syrian rebels were sleeping, about 40 Filipino peacekeepers evacuated Position 68 and walked 2 kilometers to another UN post, carrying the ammunition that the rebels wanted them to surrender. Monitoring the situation in Manila were about 20 generals gathered inside the war room of Camp Aguinaldo. Upon learning of the successful evacuation, the generals burst into applause, with Philippine military chief General Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr calling it the “greatest escape.” The escape attempt came after 7 hours of heavy firefight on Saturday, when the rebels rammed the gate of Position 68 and riddled the encampment with mortar fire. Filipino troops fired back in self-defense, backed by foreign militaries. The situation in Golan Heights remains tense – the rebels still hold 44 Fijian peacekeepers and are attacking other UN posts.

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The former chairman of the Philippine Senate’s blue ribbon committee criticized the way the panel handled allegations of graft against Vice President Jejomar Binay, calling it “one-sided.” An 11-storey Makati City Hall that started construction under Binay’s term as Mayor is allegedly overpriced by P2 billion ($45.65 million). Arroyo refrained from issuing a political stance on the case, but instead criticized the manner in which the committee’s investigations were being conducted. Arroyo said the Blue Ribbon Committee of today was “not as it was before.”The former senator particularly hit the rule that says two out of 21 members constitute a quorum. He said it will only take two people to cite a witness for contempt and have this person detained.

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Lawyer Bruce Rivera said the cunning, manipulative, and “pathological liar” Janet Napoles portrayed in the media is not the woman he knows. He said Napoles spent weekends feeding the hungry, funded charities, prayed fervently, and was generous – but never boastful – to her friends. But defending the woman alleged to be the “queen” of the scam that siphoned development funds to her fake NGOs was not easy. Rivera said at a certain point, “They were asking me to tell a lie,” making him walk away from the case. But Napoles reached out to him again in November 2013, weeks after lawyer Lorna Kapunan left. Rivera said even before the Senate summoned her, Napoles was already thinking about telling the truth. “I’m not saying she’s a saint, but more people can be crucified,” said Rivera.

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Women’s rights advocate Senator Pia Cayetano says Filipino women need to be given more opportunities to excel so more of them become leaders in business and government. Despite the visibility of female leaders in politics, Cayetano admits opportunities for women remain limited, with mostly those from wealthy and famous families like hers able to reach the top rungs. Describing women empowerment in the Philippines – a country that ranks high in gender equality surveys but lags behind development goals on women – Cayetano says, “We do not have the brick wall but we have the glass ceiling.” The senator says the idea that women should stay at home remains the number one deterrent for women aspiring for positions in government and the private sector. The principal sponsor of the landmark Reproductive Health law also expresses disappointment that the Philippines is in danger of missing the United Nations Millennium Development Goal on maternal mortality, but remains hopeful that the law’s implementation will save the lives of mothers.

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Weeks before he takes office as Indonesia’s new president, Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo faces a tough challenge: keeping his campaign promise of cutting fuel subsidies and redirecting the money towards much-needed programs. With Indonesia’s economic growth slowing, economists say the expensive payouts to keep fuel prices artificially low are unsustainable. But cutting the subsidies is hugely unpopular among the public. As fears grew that the subsidized fuel quota for the year was running down, state energy company Pertamina started limiting supplies, sparking panic-buying as consumers waited in hours-long queues at petrol stations across the country. Wellian Wiranto, a Singapore-based economist, said the long queues were “a rather visual reminder that the outgoing government’s attempt at ‘quantitative tightening’ is simply not working.”

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Western warplanes on Sunday dropped desperately needed aid to the thousands of civilians trapped in an Iraqi Shiite town under blockade by jihadists. The aid drops came alongside US air strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the terrorist group which controls areas of northern and western Iraq. On Saturday, the US military launched fresh air strikes on ISIS forces near Iraq’s largest dam, north of the militant-held northern city of Mosul. The Pentagon said the US air strikes will be “limited in scope” to support the humanitarian assistance operation. The air strikes were the furthest south that US forces have intervened in Iraq, barring reconnaissance flights, since their withdrawal in December 2011.

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Israel announced plans to expropriate 400 hectares of Palestinian land in the Bethlehem area in the south of the occupied West Bank. The military said the move stemmed from the June killing of three Israeli teenagers in the same area, known to Israelis as Gush Etzion settlement bloc. Israel blamed three Palestinians from the southern West Bank city of Hebron for the murders. The Etzion settlements council welcomed the announcement, adding, “The goal of the murderers of those three youths was to sow fear among us, to disrupt our daily lives and to call into doubt our right to the land. Our response is to strengthen settlement.” But settlement watchdog Peace Now expressed alarm, saying the declaration was proof that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “continues to put obstacles to the two-state vision and promote a one-state solution.”

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Media called it “bizarre” that Hillary Clinton had not made a statement of Ferguson, but when she did, it was one of the strongest statements ever made on the racial tension engulfing the Missouri city. At a speech before technology leaders in San Francisco, she said “we cannot ignore the inequities that persist in our justice system.” Blogging for the Washington Post, Nia-Malika Henderson said “she did what few of her prominent fellow white Democrats have done in the context of Ferguson–she acknowledged the well-known statistics that show that blacks get treated differently than whites when it comes to everything from traffic stops to sentencing.” Henderson also noted that she transcended just listing the statistics, “she got personal by asking whites to put themselves in the shoes of black Americans.” Some progressives noticed, but even as they praised her, they questioned her motives. One tweet called it a “careful triangulation and calculation driven by political interest rather than genuine feeling.”

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Should satirical articles or essays come with a warning label? Netizens debate the pros and cons after Facebook began an experiment tagging satirical articles that come out in people’s Related News feeds. Some say the move is a good idea, with one user saying: “Too many people can’t tell what satire is, and start spreading it and cause panic. I’m sick of my feed flooding with panic posts based on satire.” But others, like Rappler’s social media producer Marguerite de Leon, argues that while tagging can help curb the spread of misinformation, it is a disservice to readers. Reading satire, she says, is an experience that shouldn’t be pre-empted by any clues. Another netizen added, “No need to tag as satirical. It is up to the reader’s or viewer’s judgment if they will take those seriously or not. These will teach people to exercise their good judgment.”

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Rappler columnist Eza Ferraz lists 10. There’s Janine Chiong, co-founder of Habi Footwear who grew her college thesis project into a real business;  Nick Galan, co-founder and CEO of Satoshi Citadel Industries who launched six ventures, all in a span of three months; Josh Mahinay, founder of Bag 943 who gives a bag to a student in need for every bag purchased;  Francis Simisim, co-founder and CEO of Social Light which makes Zion WIFI, a gateway that grants unlimited internet access; wiz kid Francis Plaza, co-founder and CTO of Muber which runs a delivery service to and from abroad for Filipinos; Ralph Santos, co-founder and CEO of VMoney, an ecommerce company predicated on anti-fraud principles; Eilene Ramirez, founder of TINO Suits who dreams of reviving the tailoring industry in the Philippines; Paul Rivera, co-founder and CEO of Kalibrr which improves the recruitment of job candidates through machine learning;  Patch Dulay, co-founder of The Spark Project, a crowdfunding endeavor; and Jonha Revesencio, Digital Marketer at New York-based Rebel Mouse who shows Filipinos can look to opportunities abroad while remaining physically in the Philippines.

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