A Kuwaiti court has sentenced to death the Lebanese man and his Syrian wife who killed Filipino maid, 29-year-old Joanna Demafelis, and stuffed her body in a freezer at their house.

If President Duterte had not banned the sending of overseas Filipinos workers (OFWs) to Kuwait, do you think that Nadder Essam and Mona Assaf would have been punished?

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Do you think the Kuwaiti government would have taken steps to protect Filipino workers in the future if its ambassador had not received a tongue-lashing from our President in Malacañang?

You would be naive if you had said yes.

Some Middle Eastern countries treat expatriate workers, especially maids, like slaves.

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For the nth time, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre’s incompetence has been exposed after the Supreme Court ruled that alleged pork barrel queen Janet Lim-Napoles should not be granted provisional liberty.

Aguirre had asked the Sandiganbayan to grant Napoles the status of a government witness which entailed giving her provisional liberty.

The high court said that there was “great presumption of guilt” by Napoles in the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

Aguirre’s latest known boo-boo was the dismissal by the Department of Justice of the charges against confessed drug dealer Kerwin Espinosa and alleged Cebu drug kingpin Peter Lim.

He had the case re-filed only after there was public outcry over the dismissal.

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Aguirre also linked Cebu City Mayor Tommy Osmeña to the illicit drug trade without presenting evidence.

The justice secretary has a penchant for speaking out of turn; one example was when he belittled the killing of 17-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos by Caloocan policemen despite widespread public condemnation of the incident.

As for Napoles, the court should exercise fairness.

I’m referring to the Sandiganbayan which granted bail to former Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Jinggoy Estrada but not to their coaccused, former Sen. Bong Revilla.

Aren’t they charged with the same crime — plunder?

Just asking.

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There’s a proposal that commissioned officers of the Philippine National Police return to the old rank classification.

According to a proposed bill, they would have the same ranks as their counterparts in the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Or like the commissioned officers of the Philippine Constabulary which the PNP replaced.

But will reverting to military ranks make the PNP more disciplined?

I doubt it.

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