if they truly wanted to serve the nation, korina and ricky should have done a definitive recap of the aborted nbn-zte deal, starting with jarius bondoc’s andjoey de venecia’s testimonies on to romulo neri’s and jun lozada’s. then maybe korina herself would be clearer about benjamin abalos’ sordid role in the whole shebang. instead, they allowed abalos to repeat himself ad nauseam on hamburjer worth dying for, nowhow idiotic is that!
anc’s korina sanchez and ricky carandang roundly deserved the put-down by sister mary john mananzan, o.s.b. [order of st. benedict; she taught us religion and history in high school] when she minced no words and declared UNFAIR the way they had set up the show so that the promised lozada-abalos face-off turned out to be a forum for abalos and panelo and razon and formoso and dee to launch a sustained attack on lozada without giving the guy equal time each time to respond. UNFAIR talaga. mabuhay! si sister mary john who was so incensed, she was prepared to give up her time on cam in favor of lozada.
what were korina and ricky thinking? sa halip na maliwanagan ang bayan, lalo lang nilang ginulo! what a waste of valuable time and what a waste of a nationwide captive audience who was expecting NOT a rehash, nay, a parody, of the senate investigation, complete with insultuhan at taasan ng boses, but rather who was expecting and wanting to be clarified, affirmed, enlightened.
what were korina and ricky thinking? can it be that they themselves don’t believe jun lozada and didn’t think he deserved ample time to answer the brickbats thrown at him? or were they just being their commercial selves, trying to get as many sensational soundbites out of as many talking heads as possible, treating the audience as though we were children with short attention spans? or maybe they’re just hedging their bets, in case gma and her cohorts prevail?
this is the problem with media’s attitude that their job is only to inform, that is, to report or give voice to both sides of an issue, but not to sway us one way or another. not for them to take sides. not for them to advocate anything except freedom of the press, never mind what they do or don’t do with that freedom. all they seem to be capable of is skepticism. which is really a cop-out, a way out for people who don’t have a real grasp of issues and therefore do not have the confidence and the nerve to take a stand. which is no way to serve the nation.
pasalamat sila na hindi sila pinahiya ni jun lozada by walking out on the show even if he had every reason to. what a guy. what a class act.
as for korina and ricky, i do believe they owe jun lozada a proper apology.
GMA: Resign Now! is the call of Action for Economic Reforms.
The Philippines is not lacking in laws and institutions against corruption and plunder . . .
“Much effort has been undertaken to address chronic corruption . . .
“Despite all this, what is missing is the simplest answer to the problem: Fighting corruption is a question of leadership.
“Since the leadership itself is brazenly engaged in plunder, corruption remains unabated . . .
“The plunder exemplified by the ZTE-NBN deal goes all the way up to GMA . . .“With GMA’s repeated betrayal of the public trust, she has no right to sit as President a minute longer.”
the problem is, it’s also true what anti-opposition (not necessarily pro-gma) forces are saying: replacing her with noli de castro or manny villar or mar roxas or loren legarda or chiz escudero or brother eddie or, even, fvr, or, even, god forbid, erap, will again mean a cosmetic, rather than deep-seated change. i don’t see any of them (or anyone on the horizon) capable of surprising us with a pro-filipino vision and pro-filipino program of government, much less someone with a handle on political currents local and global who truly believes in the filipino and has the charisma to inspire and unite us fractious filipinos into a creative whole, rising above our divided selves and finding common grounds and new, equitable, ways of relating and dealing and doing business with each other for each other.
but then mataas ang pangarap ko para sa bayan. someday, sana. hope springs eternal. meanwhile, really, it’s impossible not to be affected by jun lozada’s revelations, not because they’re so surprising, but just because they confirm our suspicions about every big government transaction, suspicions handed down, in my case, by my parents and grandparents.
so yes, gma, resign! to signal man lang that it’s not okay, how she’s using the power, not even if it were true that the economy was booming.
so yes, i’m even willing to settle for noli de castro. manny and mar and loren and chiz will just have to grin and bear it, for the sake of the whole.
got this via fwd email from a friend. released by enteng romano of the black & white movement, who says it was written by jun lozada sometime in october.
What is Neri afraid to say and Why?
Many speculations have been made as to what Neri knows about the ZTE-NBN most particularly the direct involvement of Pres. Gloria Arroyo in this abominable affair. After his damaging “Sec. May 200 ka dito” demolition of Abalos, the discredited former Comelec Chairman, many were left disappointed when Neri suddenly clamped up when the Senators started asking him about the nature of his conversation with Arroyo, no amount of coaxing, cajoling and threats was enough to break his Code of Omerta. The question on many people’s mind was, What was Neri trying to protect when he repeatedly invoked “Executive Priviledge” during that gruelling 12 hour Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on live television?
We have known the Truth all along as one of the few people that Neri confided his predicament during those fateful days of April 2006, and how he wanted to resign his post of NEDA Director General and Secretary for Socio-Economic Planning over this incident where he lost all his moral respect for Pres. Gloria Arroyo.
We are doing this document to give the public an understanding of this predicament.
What is Neri afraid to tell the public? He is afraid to tell the public that after he reported the Abalos P200 million peso bribe offer, Arroyo casually told him to ignore it and work for its recommendation for approval anyway. That when he protested that it is too controversial and may attract the wrong kind of attention from media, Arroyo retorted back “Pakulo lang ni Joey yan and his father”. When he tried to reason that it may not be accommodated in the Chinese ODA package because it has been filled up with a list of projects already, Arroyo again ordered him to remove the low cost housing project and some water project to accommodate the ZTE-NBN deal in the ODA loan. That when he attempted to reason that it may not be approved in time for the Boao Forum which was only two days to go from that fateful April day, Arroyo with raised voice told him to include the ZTE-NBN project in the agenda of the following day’s meeting of a combined NEDA Board and Cabinet Committee, who as expected promptly approved the project paving the way for the contract signing between ZTE and DOTC in China the next day. Neri is afraid to tell the public that this conversation took place between him and Arroyo because it might spark another impeachment complaint against Arroyo.
Why is Neri afraid to tell the public about this conversation with Arroyo? He is afraid that another impeachment will simply result to more expenses of public funds similar to the Hyatt 10 impeachment crisis, because as DBM Secretary who replaced Boncodin, he was entrusted with the large scale DBM payola operation of Arroyo to Congressmen, Senators and Governors not quite similar to the crude Panlilio incident that the public is witnessing now. He is afraid with a more partisan Andaya at the helm of DBM, more public funds will be spent to buy the silence and favour of these greedy legislators and local executives.
He is afraid that with Arroyo’s firm control of public funds she can buy all the necessary support from most sectors of society to keep her in power.
He is afraid that even if the opposition knows about this conversation with Arroyo, he is afraid that the opposition will not pursue a serious impeachment proceedings against Arroyo, because it is not to their political interest that Noli de Castro becomes President in case Arroyo is impeached and becomes a more formidable political opponent in 2010. This insincere and unpatriotic goal of the opposition is already being manifested by the malicious speed that the Erap pardon is being cooked by Ronnie Puno together with the Erap camp to hastily put a united front of “Birds of the same corrupt feather” coalition against the emerging JDV led political opposition.
He is afraid that even if the Church knows the truth about Arroyo’s direct involvement in the ZTE-NBN deal, the Church will still not call for her resignation due to the closeness of Arroyo’s trusted lady liason to the Cardinal of Manila who was very effective during the “Hello Garci” crisis. That Arroyo’s Religious Affairs Operators have the Bishops firmly in their “donation” graces, as again manifested by the quick rebuttal of the Mindanao Bishops’ of the call of their fellow bishops in Luzon who where calling for the resignation of Arroyo just after Arroyo gave them a visit in Mindanao.
He is afraid that even if the military knows the truth about Arroyo’s direct involvement in the fraudulent ZTE-NBN deal, the AFP brass is much to indebted to Arroyo for their position and the perks that goes with their position, that they have demonstrated this twisted loyalty with their willingness to detain, remove from the service and even shoot their own men for voicing out their legitimate concerns regarding the corruption and moral authority of their Commander in Chief. It is a sad spectacle to see the respected warriors of the Marines & Special Forces rot in jail with their ideals, while their men are dying even without receiving the measly P150 per day combat pay that was promised to them by Arroyo due to lack of funds & generals gets a gift bag similar to those given to the governors and congressmen just for having dinner with Arroyo the day after that infamous breakfast & lunch meeting where bribe money flowed scandalously free.
He is afraid that even if the Media knows the truth about Arroyo’s direct involvement in the ZTE-NBN scam, Media will simply wither in the torrents of cash and favors similar to how the Hyatt 10, Hello Garci crisis were killed in the media headlines and Radio& TV coverages. Although he believes in the integrity of a handful of Journalist, he believes that a handful of these mavericks cannot withstand the hordes of paid lackeys of Malacanang. Especially that the Arroyo crisis team is now being handled by the best mercenary money can buy, from Ramos Sulo Operation, Erap’s DILG and now Arroyo’s troubleshooter, Ronnie Puno. Ably supported by the Media and PR money from PAGCOR being handled by Cerge Remonte to buy positive airtime, headlines and editorials.
He is afraid that even if the Business Sector knows about the truth of Arroyo’s direct involvement to defraud the coffers of the taxes they are paying, the businessmen will be reluctant to rock the boat of the current economic uptrend, especially with the very close personal and business relationship of the so called leaders of the big business like Ricky Razon of ICTSI, Donald Dee of PCCI and Francis Chua of the Filipino-Chinese Federation to Arroyo herself. He is afraid that the hard earned remittances of Filipino OFWs that is keeping the economy booming and that can keep the economy afloat even under any administration is being wasted under this unholy alliance of Arroyo and her favoured businessmen.
He is afraid that even if the Civil Society knows the truth about Arroyo’s direct involvement in the ZTE-NBN deal, that the Civil Society is now tired of mass actions after witnessing two failed EDSA revolutions, that Civil Society is now afflicted with a “Rally Fatigue” and cannot muster enough public outrage to denounce Arroyo’s “corruption with impunity”. He is afraid that the middle class is now indifferent to the corruption that goes around them, not realising that the middle class are the ones mainly carrying the burden of the loan payments for these corrupt deals. He is afraid that the middle class are more interested to become an OFW & to leave this country leaving their family and children behind, and may not care anymore about the crimes being committed against their country by its own President.
He is afraid that even if the Masa, the students, the workers knows the truth about Arroyo’s direct involvement in the ZTE-NBN deal to steal precious resources from public funds, that they are now too poor and impoverished to be able to afford the time to join mass actions against the abuses of the Arroyo administration, that these former vanguards of mass actions in the country are now completely dependent on financial resources of professional organizers and have turned themselves into a “Rally for hire” groups rather than a true and genuine political gathering shouting for reforms.
He is afraid that the public may not know the extent of corruption in this country and may wrongly believe that they can cure corruption by simply replacing Arroyo with another person. He is afraid that the public may overlook the systemic and institutionalized nature of the source of corruption in this country, he is afraid that the people will again opt for a regime change without concern or a plan to correct the root causes of corruption in the country. He is afraid that people may not realize that it is not bringing Arroyo down that is difficult, it is establishing a new order that is the difficult task.
This is the predicament of Neri which I want people to realize especially to those who are asking Neri to tell the truth.