OPINION:

Why Not Abort The ZTE Project?

by Adan Silangan

The haphazard decision of Malacañang to suspend the controversial ZTE broadband deal raised more eyebrows than praises. For one, its motive easily becomes suspect with the forthcoming appearance of Arroyo’s former NEDA director, Romulo Nery on Wednesday, Sept. 26, at the continuation of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearings.

As one observer said, the Supreme Court has already ordered its suspension as a matter of judicial procedure and in connection with the petition filed by Vice Gov. Rolex Suplico with the High Tribunal. So what for was the order of suspension? Sabi na nga, eh para que pa?

Mareng Winnie, on the other hand, says it’s the best thing the President has ever done about this controversy. Sabi naman namin, eh para que pa nga no! With or without her public pronouncement suspending the implementation of this project, eh suspended na!

Such a gesture may only send Mike Arroyo’s Atty. Santos to his wobbly legs and cry anew: The President is only after some “media mileage”! You know this guy is so fond of that phrase every time he defends his boss Mike.

But you know, on second thought, Atty. Santos could be right this time, President Gloria might just be after “some media mileage”.

The order of suspension will send certain signals in media that the President and the First Gentleman have nothing to do with the ZTE deal. That she will do everything to prosecute wrongdoers in her cabinet and/or political allies. That only those whose hands are tainted with the ZTE scam should go to jail. Chair Abalos and Mendoza, and yes, even Joey De Venecia should be prosecuted for Plunder and influence peddling, respectively.

Pwede, di ba?

But, of course, there is Romulo Nery who vowed to tell the whole truth this coming Wednesday. One who is with known probity, one who would always stand for the truth.

Nery’s testimony may seal the lid off this controversy that has preoccupied us again. He may even be the man that will remind all of us about the true meaning of – a public office being a public trust.

This could be the reason why the President suspended the ZTE national broadband project – to abort Mr. Romulo Nery’s Senate testimony.

Huwag naman sana!

NEWS

TWO-HOUR GUN FIGHT WITH NPA

IN BULAN CLAIMED ONE DEAD
by Roy G. Gersalia

BULAN, Sorsogon -- (News)— A firefight erupted early morning today between elements of the Philippine Army and the communist’s New Peoples Army (NPA) at the boundary of barangays Butag and Bonga, this town, leaving one soldier wounded and an NPA member dead, police said.

The two-hour firefight injured PFC (Private First Class) Cristituto Vellones y Divina of the Bravo Company, Philippine Army based at barangay Laboy, Matnog town.

Vellones was initially treated at the Pantaleon Gotladera Memorial Hospital but was later airlifted by a military chopper for further medical treatment at Sorsogon City.

The victim, who is believed to be a member of the NPA, had bruises on the chest but revealed no bullet wounds. His body was found near a swamp where the supposed encounter took place. It was initially brought to this town’s police station and eventually to the hospital for necropsy where the examining physician declared the cause of death as “drowning”. As of press time, the casualty remained unidentified.

Eyewitness accounts, however, claim, there were ten or more persons wounded both from the government troops and from the rebels’ side.

PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT ARROYO:

Another Plunder Case In The Offing?

Many Filipino observers believe another Philippine President is bound to be tried for “plunder”. Allegations abound that the First Gentleman, Miguel Arroyo, is somewhat involve in the $130 million kickback from the ZTE (A Chinese multi-national corporation engage in computer and internet services) national broadband project believed to have been brokered by Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos and Aroyo’s Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Leandro Mendoza.

With the Senate investigation of this latest scandal, the Arroyo administration has plunged anew into another media spectacle, albeit negatively.

A few days ago in the Senate, Jose De Venecia III, son and namesake of incumbent Philippine House of Representatives Speaker Jose De Venecia, dragged the First Gentleman as the “mystery man” he referred to who bullied him into “backing off” from the government’s multi-billion peso broadband project.

The incident, according to the young De Venecia, took place in the plush Wack-Wack Golf and Country Club in Mandaluyong City and during a “meeting” that Abalos hosted for Sec. Mendoza and Finance Sec. Gary Teves. It was in that meeting where the First Gentleman was brought by Chairman Abalos, ostensibly to dissuade the young De Venecia from pursuing his bid to get the national broadband deal.

The first time this bombshell went off, practically all the President’s men denied the involvement of their First Gentleman and even went on to say, the “meeting” at Wack-Wack never took place. They are all aware, perhaps, that if these allegations are proved Mrs. Arroyo will certainly be the second president in Philippine history to be tried for Plunder.

Here’s what the law on Plunder (R.A. 7080) says:

“ Sec. 2. Definition of the Crime of Plunder, Penalties. Any public officer who, by himself or in connivance with members of his family, relatives by affinity or consanguinity, xxx xxx xxx . . . subordinates or other persons, amasses, accumulates or acquires ill-gotten wealth through a combination or series of overt or criminal acts . . . xxx xxx xxx . . .in the aggregate amount or total value of at least Seventy-five million pesos (P75,000,000.00), shall be guilty of the crime of plunder . . . xxx xxx xxx ”

“Ill-gotten wealth” is also defined as asset, property or material possession of any person acquired by him directly or indirectly through his subordinates and/or business associates.

The ill-gotten wealth may be in the form of receiving, directly or indirectly, any commission, kickbacks from any government contract or project or by reason of his office or position.

Or by taking undue advantage of official position, authority, relationship, connection or influence to unjustly enrich himself at the expense and to the damage and prejudice of the Filipino people.

Unknown to the President’s men, however, Sen Jinggoy Estrada was holding an ace up his sleeves. He reportedly has a witness in the First Gentleman’s “bullying” incident in Wack-Wack who happens to be a waiter in the restaurant where the “meeting” took place.

Reason enough for the President’s men to rethink their positions.

But whoever advised Mike Arroyo to fly to Hongkong on the eve of De Venecia’s testimony in the Senate failed to foresee the negative effects of such a move. More people now are inclined to believe he is hiding something from the Senate, you know – flight means guilt! At least that’s what the law says.

At the continuation of the Senate inquiry last Wednesday (Sept. 19) many were surprised to see a battery of Arroyo officials present. They all showed up, apparently to put up a “not guilty” mask on their faces. But as the inquiry progressed on, however, the appearances showed more guilty faces than innocent ones.

For one, Finance Secretary Gary Teves (always a gentleman that he is) contradicted Mendoza and told the senators, not only that the controversial “meeting” took place, he even surprised them with his revelation that some ZTE officials were also present at the meeting together with the First Gentleman, Chairman Abalos, Sec. Mendoza and himself.

If there was one unified stand the President’s men made during that afternoon in the Senate, it was their resolve to hoodwink the Filipino people and pass the “shady deal” they entered into with ZTE as nothing but a “conditional contract” where no public funds were lost.

Sec. Mendoza and his cahoots took turns in telling us that no law was violated. Public bidding, according to them, is not required in this project since it is a government to government transaction and that the project will be financed by a loan extended by the Chinese government to the Philippines. Asked, however, to produce the loan agreement and/or the Executive Agreement entered into between the two governments all the President’s men could say is that, it will follow!

The President’s men are obviously attempting to skirt the issue of Plunder in this case:

First. They would have us believe that Mike Arroyo had nothing to do with the “ZTE-Abalos deal” contrary to Joey De Venecia’s claim that he was bullied by the First Gentleman into “backing-off” from the project.

Second. Even if Mike Arroyo did really bully De Venecia it was for good reasons, to prevent him from entering into a prohibited contract since he is the son of Speaker De Venecia, a public official. (Whew! How magnanimous!)

Third. A government project subject of an Executive Agreement is exempt from bidding requirements therefore, Mendoza et. al. did not violate the law when they awarded without public bidding the contract to ZTE.

For eight grueling hours all the President’s men did was to deny any wrongdoing. They denied Abalos brokered for the Chinese firm ZTE. They denied receiving $130 million dollars bribe. They denied the First Gentleman’s involvement. And worse, they denied placing the Philippine government in a disadvantageous position when they contracted out the national broadband project to ZTE – when even experts from the UP School of Economics decried this project as overblown to unimaginable proportions.

In law, there is what is considered as “An answer pregnant with denials is actually a confirmation.” Or, if you prefer algebra, “negative plus negative equals positive”.

O.J. SIMPSON, ARRESTED FOR ARMED ROBBERY

Football fallen star O. J. Simpson was arrested and handcuffed early Sunday morning at his hotel in Las Vegas for armed robbery.

It seems that this guy fancies himself as somebody who gets what he wants and gets away with it. So much with his football and movie fame that he thought it made him a "god" or something that can get away with the law.

He was able to skip conviction for the murder of his wife and her friend from a technicality of the law in the procedure in gathering evidence from a crime scene. Thanks to this "booboo", crime scene investigations now are much better and their operatives more careful lest they repeat getting lose of a criminal no matter how guilty.

Let's hope this latest arrest of Simpson will truly lead him to jail. After all, the arrest took place in Las Vegas. We all know that this is the scene of the original tv drama series the CSI.

NEWS OF THE TOWN

HISTORY DENIED TO BULANONS
By Roy A. Gersalia

BULAN, Sorsogon — (News)– A news blackout.

Much has been dismayed and others outraged when the Sorsogon Electric Cooperative (Soreco I) at 9:00 a.m., yesterday suddenly cut off its power which services six towns here in the province of Sorsogon denying the residents to witness history- the verdict of former president Joseph Ejercito Estrada at the Sandiganbayan.

As early as 6:00 a.m., yesterday, residents of this town were already tuning in their radio and turning on their television sets to listen and or watch the latest happenings in Metro Manila as broadcast networks and print journalists in the capital scrambled off to report the news with fresh and outstanding stories.

But at 9:00 a.m., when the promulgation of the deposed president accused of plunder is about to start, the electric power here went off.

ROBBED OF HISTORY

Edwin, 26, felt that he was being cheated. ” I have been longing to see it on live newscast but this electric cooperative where I am a member-consumer deprived me. I am being robbed of history,” he said.

“With this power outtage, I felt like our town is not part of the Philippines. Everytime there’s big news out there, our electric power went off for no apparent reason. Maybe the fight of Manny Pacquiao on October 7 is next,” said Jojo in Filipino, a pedicab driver.

Most residents here went out of their houses when the power went off cursing the Electric Cooperative in particular and the national government in general.

A government employee who spoke on condition of anonymity said, “maybe the sudden power outage which will resume at about 5:00 p.m., today is an order from the top. Soreco is only a subcriber of the Napocor (National Power Corporation) and if somebody from the top ordered to turn off its power for a while, our electric cooperative will of course follow, or say amen.

RESUMPTION

At about 4:30 p.m., the electric power resumed. But some residents here said, there’s not much use of it anymore. They lamented that when they really needed electric power, it is also the time when it is being turned off.

Some residents considered it useless as they already know the news from others about theverdict of the former president as some of them resourcefully relied on radio with batteries.

NOTICE

Meanwhile a Soreco employee who refused to be named when interviewed, said they had announced about the power outage a day earlier. He said they had assumed that every member-consumer knew about it.

Pressed for additional statement, the said employee declined.

BULUSAN VOLCANO ERUPTION

Nagtuga na naman baga an Bulusan Volcano san July 31, 2007. Grabe, masobra sa 6 kilometros an kaitaas san abo na binuga sini sa panganuron. An pagal ugang kay namangnuhan mi sa Bulan halos nagpupukrag na an abo. Maribukon pan'o an parade san mga eskuwelahan para sa culmination activities san month of nutrition. (He he! An kadaghanan liwat san nagparade na kabataan, malnourished.) Di bale, imuda na lang niyo an Bulusan. An tiwtiw na naglalayaw, bahala na kamo suon. Kulang lang yuon sa pansin.

OPINION

Keeping Stock Of Our Old Selves

by Adan Silangan

It’s not surprising to hear all the howl of protests against the Wilyonaryo “blooper” in ABS-CBN’s game show, WOWOWIE. Be it a “mechanical glitch” or a malicious attempt to deprive a poor man’s dream, this issue must be settled for good and – convincingly.

Such a reaction is reflective only of a valid fear – has the wheeling-and-dealing now gone to the game shows?

Bad as it is that our government is now plague by cheating, lying and stealing politicians. Are the game shows and their hosts no different from this breed of politicians?

Not too long ago, we had the same national embarrassment when we were stripped of our title in the Little League for allegations of cheating. We were not honest enough to declare the true ages of our Philippine team members who were later found to be over age for the league.

Not too long ago, too, we revolted against a Dictator’s stealing our victory in the 1986 presidential polls. Luckily, we succeeded in ousting him from power and had a chance to improve our image as a nation.

But the cheating, lying and stealing did not stop there.

The same victory in the same electoral process was denied to a people dreaming of redemption from the mess they were in. Allegations of massive fraud in the 2004 Presidential Elections preoccupied us again.

For the nth time, we succeeded in grabbing the world’s headlines as a nation of cheats. The controversial “Hello Garci” tapes did not help us either. It even made the headlines bigger with its affirmation, that even the supposed guardian of democracy, the Comelec, is now accused of perpetrating electoral frauds.

What is appalling about all these indignities is that it inflicts on all Filipinos indiscriminately. It has a way of bugging us no matter how we ignore it. No matter where we are or who we are.

Whether “national pride” or “national embarrassment” there is no way we can avoid its resultant effect. In fact, we can not say “Labas ako dyan, pare. Sila lang naman ang mandaraya.” Or “Eh, sila lang naman ang gumawa ng kagalak-galak.”

No. When the Filipino nation suffers, all of us suffer because we are the nation. Huwag mo’ng sabihing Kano ka na ngayon at hindi ka na naaapektuhan ng mga kawalang-hiyaan ng kapwa Pinoy natin. Passport lang ang napalitan sa'yo. Pinoy ka pa rin!

I received an open letter from a Pinoy expatriate, Francisco Masallo[1]. Attached to his letter is another letter – a HATE LETTER against Filipinos – by one, Art Bell of Nevada,.

Ironically, this Bell doesn’t ring well as he pretends to be. (Nor is he an art.) Well, he is just an inconsequential trash. His pen is as poisoned as his brain (if he has one). And whatever is left in that “coo-coo” shell of his is nothing but unbridled bigotry – one which is probably caused by an unhappy childhood.

Despite his venomous letter, however, I don’t think his pealing is enough to shake our deep sense of pride. We know very well how great the Filipino is as a race. We need not recite to, who’s that bug again, Mr. Tililing? – a litany of our great deeds.

But if we are to stop this fungus from growing again, we need only to police our own ranks. We need to get involve. Not merely react for every punch we take.

Incidents like that of the Wilyonaryo of WOWOWIE, as well as that of the anomalous ZTE broadband deal (involving no less than Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos) and the ‘Hello, Garci’ tape will continue to breed bigots like Bell.

The stench of these scams will forever clog our nostrils and definitely, our neighbors will continue holding us responsible for our fowl-smelling brothers.

Get up and make a stand! Write to your relatives and friends in the Philippines and tell them to choose their leaders rightly. Remind them of our age-old values that helped all of us to be molded into what we are now, proud Filipinos.

Don’t just sit there and wait for the results to be tallied after every election. Help us in re-educating our people of the need for moral leadership. After all, it is you – the expatriates – who suffer most from these seemingly endless scandals by the scoundrels we call PUBLIC SERVANTS.

[1] Click francis_masallo@yahoo.com for the full text of Masallo’s letter.

POETRY

Parable For Modern Times
by Red

In the beginning
there was bread and butter
enough for adam and eve
for the Word had been heed:
vegetation was a -clutter.

Crunch your biscuits beggar
chew them softly with the molars
for when your moldy meal is over
someone will conk you dead.

In the garden
trees were all fruit-blooming
apples dangled invitingly ripe
but man was dumb, though woman bright
in time, both became all-knowing.

Give in maid humor your master
don't shout now nor escape
lest you meet and accident
down this solitary stairways.

East of eden
two begot abel and cain
then a feasting, winning tribe;
a multitude so surfeited to survive
when trees and men were felled by deluvian rain;

Run boy run
chase after those fleeting cars
offer them cigarettes, matches, gums
after that die: a victim of hit-and-run.

Before His coming
wrath alone could not eschew
the gripping hunger from the hearts of men
still the Son need come to Bethlehem
that earth would fecundate anew.

Night is chilly aged mother
wrap the child with a newspaper
before you sell him in the morning
assure him 'bout the sermon on the mount.

Walis Tingting

Too bad for actor-comedian Joey Marquez. Sa dami ba naman ng nakawan sa pamahalaan tila siya lang ang nasapol ng, sabi nga'y, "strong arm of the law". Maybe Joey thought this practice (of overpricing, payroll padding, ghosts projects, etc.) is common place in government. From the president down to the barangay chairman, and, would believe, even the SK (sangguniang kabataan), corruption has become a way of life.

For instance, a simple barangay boundary marker consisting of 35 pieces of hollowblocks, 2 bags of cement, and some pieces of steel bars, would cost the government something like Php.25,000.00!

Yes, and this is usually facilitated by municipal COA auditors. They are the very ones who even teach this "young" public officials how to go around their very own auditing rules. If you are lucky enough, COA auditors will even recommend you to their "suki" establishments who could give you blank official receipts to expedite your liquidation. Whew! Talagang institutionalized na ang corruption sa Pilipinas. Malas ka lang Joey ikaw ang ginawang exhibit "A" para sa "big fish" na kailangang-kailangan ipakita ng gobyerno na nahuli na nila.

Ano kaya ang mangyayari sa ZTE broadband scandal na kinasasangkutan nina COMELEC Chairman Benjamin Abalos at DOTC Sec. Leandro Mendoza? Joey Marquez' scam is truly "walis tingting" lang kung ihahambing sa bagong kawatan na ito. We'll see.