BEFORE the headline topic, a rejoinder with national security implications to three assistant majority leaders of the House of Representatives: Paolo Ortega V of La Union, Zia Alonto Adiong of Lanao del Sur and Jil Bongalon of Ako Bicol party-list.

They deplored what Representative Ortega called Vice President Sara Duterte's 'deafening silence' about the sea and now air incidents involving Chinese and Philippine forces. But those not blinded by pro-American propaganda cannot but deplore an even more thunderous shut-up by nearly all Filipino leaders and media who have collectively kept mum about a far bigger danger to the nation than Chinese harassment.