Syria is close to the Biblical Armageddon

US President Donald Trump announced last Friday that the U.S., France, and Britain together launched military strikes in Syria to punish President Bashar Assad for his alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians and to deter him from doing it again. Loud explosions lit up the skies over Damascus, as Trump announced the airstrikes. That's a total of 105 Tomahawk missiles fired. So in the end, the US is not getting out of Syria but escalating this war.

While at the start of his presidency, Pres. Trump wanted the US military out of Syria, in the end, for as long as Russia is helping Syria, America just can't leave this part of the Middle East. People do not realize that Syria is a couple of hundred kilometers from Israel and the land called Megiddo. Megiddo is the Biblical place called Armageddon, where supposedly the armies of the world would meet for the final battle for the supremacy of the world. To those pilgrims to the Holy Land who have been to Mt. Tabor, they didn't know that they were overlooking the plains of Megiddo.

So are we close to Armageddon? I have to submit that we are very close to it. But will we see this final battle in our lifetime? I hope not because such a battle will not only be done by conventional military weapons because each side, (especially when they are losing) would be tempted to use their nuclear arsenal and then the whole world would explode in a nuclear exchange that nobody wants to see. Pray for Syria!

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Going around yesterday to many places where I met a lot of friends, on their mouths (including the social media network) were about the news of the Light Rail Transit for Cebu. I guess these people were sick and tired of the seesaw debate on whether or not the Bus Rapid Transit is right for Cebu City as many people insist it will reduce roads to only two lanes, which is a reality we can't deny.

But the real reason why people are elated by the news of the LRT is that it is a revival of the old Cebu railway from Carcar to Danao City. Best of all was that report that when the LRT comes to Cebu City, many parts of it will be underground or overhead. Something we never anticipated. A subway means that infrastructure work will not cause traffic unlike what is happening with that underpass being constructed in Mambaling.

So the question is; what happens to the BRT if the LRT becomes a reality? The proponents already announced that their LRT project will start at the last quarter of next year. I'd like to caution our friends that the LRT approval should not be considered a victory for Presidential Assistant Michael Lloyd Dino over Mayor Tomas Osmeña. In my book, having an LRT at no cost to the government is a victory for the Cebuanos for this mass transit system does not only help the people living in Cebu City, but all Cebuanos who live within Carcar to Danao. Lastly, hopefully the LRT project would end that useless debate on whether or not Cebu City needs a BRT. But in truth, there's no point in pushing for the BRT if the proponents of the LRT are this serious!

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Another useless debate being peddled by pundits in Metro Manila was their trying to compare the impeachment trial of the late chief justice Renato Corona to the case of incumbent Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno. Lawyer Jo-jo Lacanilao said that while Corona's ouster after his impeachment trial was based on issues involving his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth, it cannot be compared with Sereno's case because Sereno is not being charged with undeclared income or graft and corruption, unlike Corona during his impeachment.

Simply put, the motive for the trial of Corona was the revenge of the Aquino political family over his decisions regarding their Hacienda Luisita, while the case of Sereno is one involving her non-filing of her SALN. Plus the fact that she failed to pass her psychological tests, and when she was appointed as chief justice she fired those people who administered her tests.

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