The women have guts -- and lots of it. I am referring to Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn who last week signed an administrative order to pave the way for the Legal Execution Department to proceed with confiscating the assets of her predecessor, Boonsong Teriyapirom, and his five associates involved in the fake government-to-government rice deals with two fictitious Chinese firms, to recoup the loss from these deals estimated at about 20 billion baht.
The minister signed the administrative order on behalf of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha who earlier invoked Section 44 of the interim constitution to protect officials in the performance of their duty, notably when demanding compensation from state officials who cause damage to the state -- in this case, the G2G rice deals, and the corruption-plagued rice pledging scheme of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra in general.
Another iron lady, who earlier signed the administrative order involving the same matter on behalf of Ms Apiradi, is commerce permanent secretary Chutima Bunyapraphasara.
Both are fully aware of the possible consequences they may face in the future, when this government is out of office, for their unenviable but praiseworthy and bold action despite the protective cover of S44.
Veera Prateepchaikul is a former editor, Bangkok Post.
Ms Apiradi reportedly said she was not worried about the prospect of spending the rest of her working life, after this government ends, in court defending herself from lawsuits filed against her by vindictive politicians and others.
Ms Chutima, too, is likely to face similar consequences.
Like any desperate man pushed into a corner, Mr Boonsong last week made veiled threats against those who trey to seize his assets to pay his share of the losses from the fake G2G rice deals -- 1.77 billion baht.
It is a huge amount of compensation and I don't know how he will be able to pay it. And I don't know whether his boss, or anyone else in the Pheu Thai Party, will be kind enough to come to his rescue in case he loses his appeal in the Administrative Court and, possibly, the Supreme Administrative Court, and is finally forced to pay up and be declared bankrupt.
Next it will be the turn of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra to be held accountable for "sitting idly by" in overseeing the rice-pledging scheme in her capacity as head of the government and chair of the Rice Policy Committee.
The civil liability committee headed by Manas Jamveha, director-general of the Comptroller-General's Department, said last week that the committee had come up with the figure that Ms Yingluck will have to pay -- 35.7 billlion baht, or 20% of the 178 billion baht in losses estimated by his committee from two main rice crops.
Ms Yingluck is yet to respond to this move from the civil liability committee.
Mr Boonsong and the rest of Pheu Thai have always insisted they are clean and the rice pledging scheme was good for farmers. Even if there was corruption in the scheme, the amount is insignificant.
The scheme was good for the farmers. That I agree. But the trouble is, there were too many parasites who took advantage of the scheme to line their pockets with taxpayer money that should have gone to the farmers.
But the problem for Mr Boonsong and Pheu Thai is that, despite their repeated claims of innocence, honesty and good intentions towards the farmers, they can't produce evidence to prove the legitimacy of the G2G rice deals and lend some credibility to their empty claims, such as the letters of credit from credible banks supplied by the Chinese buyers, the freighters that shipped the rice overseas and when the rice was shipped.
That is why no one, except those in Pheu Thai, is buying their story.
The third iron lady I would like to mention is Supa Piyajitti, former deputy finance permanent secretary and now a member of the National Anti-Corruption Committee.
I am not surprised she is despised and feared by many Pheu Thai members, particularly Ms Yingluck who wants her removed from six sub-committees of the NACC investigating her alleged mismanagement in running the previous government, including the alleged gross mismanagement of the big floods in 2011.
She headed the panel to close the accounts of the rice-pledging scheme and come up with the estimated damage from it.
As straight as a ruler, she once refused to sign a 40 billion baht loan contract in her capacity as finance deputy permanent secretary because it lacked detail. The loan was part of the dubious 350 billion baht water management project of the Yingluck administration after the big floods in 2011.
As a result of her defiance, she was transferred and put in charge of public relations, while being placed under investigation.
Ms Supa reportedly quit one of panels probing the previous government's procurement project for which the government has refused to provide details.
In the latest defence of her conduct, Ms Yingluck said she merely sat idly by. Yet, as a former prime minister she is being denied justice -- "so how can the ordinary people be assured of justice?" she asked.
Well then, if the job of a prime minister is just to sit idly by or be aloof from state affairs, what is the point of having a prime minister in the first place?