merci & the senate

from newsbreak‘s glenda gloria: ‘Lp now a force to reckon with’

The overwhelming House vote for the impeachment of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez proves two things: that the ruling Liberal Party is now a real force to reckon with and that President Aquino has been able to exercise political command without trying too hard.

“The impeachment project was a consolidating project for the LP, and they succeeded,” said Earl Parreño, a veteran House watcher and former journalist who’s now with the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform (Iper). “After this consolidation phase, they could push for their reform agenda and if they do it well, it could only be good for the country.”

The victory becomes sweeter because the Iglesia ni Cristo pushed hard—but failed—to support the Ombudsman, according to a political ally of the President.

At total of 212 members of the House of Representatives voted to impeach Gutierrez for betrayal of public trust (see how they voted). This is 30 votes less than the total members of the ruling coalition—250. President Aquino earlier made it clear to his partymates that he wanted the Ombudsman out since he considered her an obstacle to honest governance.

The INC reportedly managed to persuade some solons to vote no, abstain or not register their votes. Among the 4 who abstained are relatives of senator-judges: Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado, wife of Sen. Bong Revilla, and Las Pinas Rep. Mark Villar, son of Sen. Manuel Villar.

… A senior government official close to the President told Newsbreak that they had about 4 estimates of how the voting would go—anywhere from 140 to 160 to close to 200, but never 200 or more. In the early headcount phase, the President even said he’d be content with just the 94 votes, according to this source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

i was surprised when gma showed up, looking rather woebegone.   was her one vote perceived to be so important as to make a difference, be a tipping point maybe?   when in fact wala pala silang kalaban-laban?   i bet she regretted coming.    manny pacquiao who stayed away but voted via twitter was way smarter.   even if he got heckled online for his no vote, and of course his weird, and graceless, retort to why he was absent, serves him right.

so now, all eyes on the senate.   manila standard‘s emil jurado predicts that merci will be acquitted.

Will the Senate convict Gutierrez? There are serious doubts. Senator Francis Escudero, an Aquino ally, says that no less than 16 senators are needed to convict Gutierrez, and at least seven to acquit her.

Out of the 24 senators, two are not present. Senator Panfilo Lacson is still a fugitive from justice. Former Senator Noynoy Aquino has risen to the presidency. But it is clear that the Senate needs a two-thirds vote in order to convict an official.

Who might be the seven senators to decide in Gutierrez’s favor. They are Senators Lito Lapid and Bong Revilla, known to be former President Arroyo’s allies; the minority in the opposition composed of Nacionalista Party senators, like Manny Villar, Alan Peter Cayetano, Pia Cayetano, Bongbong Marcos, and Loren Legarda. That’s already seven. Others who will also likely join them are Senators Joker Arroyo, Miguel Zubiri and Miriam Santiago. That brings the total to 10 senators in favor of Gutierrez.

Thus, my gulay, it’s unlikely that Gutierrez will be convicted. Her acquittal will be a slap on President Aquino, he who does not hide his obsession to run after his predecessor and prosecute her with a “friendlier” Ombudsman.

hmm.   read raul pangalangan‘s Gutierrez impeachment prospects in the Senate and tony la vina‘s Impeachment as a lesson in civics.   the senate would be wise to give the prosecutors of the lower house, and not the impeached ombudsman, the benefit of the doubt.   senators who acquit do so at their own peril.

that’s entertainment sa senado

caught just the last part of the jinggoy & mrs. ligot show, and wondered what mrs. ligot was on, she who was so teary and high-blood the first time she showed up in the senate investigation.   twitter provided quick answer, valium-laced testimony, said @wagmagalit.   ah so.   ilang mg. kaya, lol.   she was not only quite composed and alert, invoking her right against self-incrimination at every turn, she was also making eyes at the senator and the senator was returning an eye for an eye, LOL.   they were almost ummm flirting, she playing the coquette, appealing for mercy, and he playing gallant macho, willing to withdraw contempt motion if only she would oblige by answering allegedly harmless questions.   kulang na lang magkalabitan sila.   that’s entertainment, complete with innuendo about mrs. ligot’s “constant lady companion.”   thanks to
@drippingmind for the link.  thanks to @SagadaSun for the retweets.

to BNPP or not to BNPP

had just finished reading winnie monsod’s inquirer column BNPP sturdier than Fukushima plant when i got this fwd email from flor lacanilao, a reaction from AC de Dios of PhilScience@yahoogroups.com to a philippine star article Despite nuke crisis in Japan, science chief backs opening of BNPP

I think we may be surprised in the end to know what is happening or what really happened inside the troubled reactors in Japan. It is unfortunate that the Philippine science chief jumps into conclusion even without the complete information at hand.

There are two sources of radiation inside every nuclear plant in the world: the main reactor and the spent fuel rods. The uranium fuel rods could only be used for about six years – after that, it has depleted its U-238, to a point that it is no longer economical to keep using. These spent fuel rods, however, are still highly radioactive and are still producing a lot of heat that these need to be stored under circulating water – it takes another ten years before these spent fuel rods could be handled safely. Thus, in every power plant, there is a pool of water that contains the used or spent fuel rods. This pool needs to be circulated, otherwise, it will boil and cotinue to heat, and the zirconium casings protecting the radioactive material will oxidize.

I think the main reactors inside the troubled reactors of Japan were not the problem – After all, the safety of these reactors have been greatly emphasized.So these are contained in super strong stainless containers, probably not just by one but two protective containments. The problem, I believe, concerns the spent fuel rods, the nuclear waste that these plants have been accumulating and stored inside pools, which, of course, are not, inside the strong stainless steel containers. The lack of electricity meant no circulation of water inside these pools.

And these pools began to overheat causing oxidation of the metal casing and production of hydrogen which then cause the explosions. If this is indeed the case, then the problem is almost unsolvable because chances are, the container holding these pools has probably been breached. Therefore, the pools could no longer hold water that is necessary to control the radioactivity of the spent fuel rods. Japan will still try to pour water into the nuclear plants in the hope that the cooling pools will be restored.

It is not only the integrity of a plant against an earthquake or tsunami that is in question. The problem of nuclear waste still requires an answer and if the above is correct, handling and storing the spent fuel rods require as much attention. I think, if one then factors this, it could be easily seen that it is not really economically sound to build and operate a nuclear power plant. If a plant will operate for 36 years, it will have, by the end, an equivalent of 6-cycle nuclear waste (since the rods are useful only for six years) – the design and construction of the plant that will take care of this waste will add tremendously to the cost. This is the question that I think the science chief needs to ask before backing the opening of the BNPP.

Angel C. DeDios
Associate Professor of Chemistry
Georgetown University

but read, too, glenn e. sjoden’s Why nuclear power is a necessity

As a career nuclear engineer, dedicated to public safety and to the advancement of nuclear engineering and nuclear power for the world, this has been devastating — all for want of some diesel fuel, clean water and decent electrical couplings on backup generators. However, that is the truth. If the backup generating (diesel) sources had been properly sited to operate post-tsunami, I wouldn’t have written this article, because the Daiichi reactors would now be stable.

…”What about the waste?” I answer this by asking, did you ever wonder why our French colleagues have 40 years of mostly nuclear power and no waste problems?

Like most nations, they recycle their used fuel, since 95% of the fuel can be recycled back into the reactor and used again, making nuclear power the most “green” energy source out there. Burying the waste, as we do in the United States, is completely wasteful, and other nations, including Japan, recycle all of their used fuel.

We do need to take pause, as the events in Japan are certainly immense, and we need to collectively ponder ways to improve at all levels. However, I believe we need to be smart and carry on the mission of nuclear power for a sustainable future, learning from our mistakes. Likewise, I don’t stop driving my gasoline powered automobile when I hear about an oil refinery accident. Let us be smart, but let us also be sensible and realistic.

as for the BNPP, no doubt it would take a lot of upgrading, specially with regard to recycling the nuclear waste.

and what about the finding of international experts that the BNPP was built near major earthquake fault lines.   is it true that PHILVOLCS Director Renato Solidum Jr. has debunked this, saying there is no evidence to support the presence of an active fault beneath the nuclear reactor building of the BNPP or within the BNPP area?   meaning, not near enough to be affected by a major major earthquake?   really?

don’t know na whom to believe.  i’m still anti-nuke.

karma daw

nakarma daw ang japan for past war atrocities, say some chinese bloggers (and some pinoy commenters in pinoyexchange.com), to the dismay of the chinese government.   read China’s official sympathy for Japan’s woes undermined by blogger’s glee.

read too The State Hornet’s Editorial: Disaster in Japan is not ‘karma’ with which i tend to agree.   kung tutuusin pinagbayaran na ng japan lahat ng iyon when the u.s. dropped atomic bombs on hiroshima and nagasaki in 1945 killing 150,000 to 240,000 people  (which is not to condone that heinous act of revenge, it was totally uncalled for, tokyo was negotiating na for surrender).

if i’m thinking karma at all, it’s in the sense of, umm, knowing this area of the world to be earthquake prone, why are we all still here?   why did our ancestors not have the sense to move away to safer places?   i suppose because earthquakes didn’t happen that often, and never killed off entire populations?

in japan’s case, they got very smart about building earthquake proof buildings, but were not smart enough to stay out of coastlines, never imagining that tsunamis could come so instantly?   and they just weren’t careful enough pala about upgrading safety features of old model nuclear plants, read Glenn E. Sjoden’s Why nuclear power is a necessity

dito sa pinas, if a big one hits metro manila, and estimates of widespread devastation prove true, because many of our buildings are poorly weakly constructed, and many of them are built on top of a major fault line, yan, yan ang karma.