WHERE it should have moved swiftly to address a matter of public safety, the Aquino Administration has taken a few days or longer than it ought to in responding to reports that synthetic (read: fake) rice is being sold openly in, of all places, Davao City, the turf of Mr. Tough Guy, Rodrigo Duterte.

The government could have immediately allayed fears of consumers by declaring, for instance, that the sale of this non-rice was not taking place across the archipelago (which evidently was the case because no other reports on the fake grain were subsequently heard from other cities or provinces).

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