Business Circuit

Rodolfo Lozada Jr., executive officer of the state-owned Philippine Forest Corp., does not fit in the jigsaw puzzle that continues to attend the ZTE broadband deal. Based on his position, he is completely irrelevant to the issue.

But he is in hiding. He has defied the summons of the Blue Ribbon Committee investigating the ZTE scandal. He is hiding because he does not want to tell the committee what he knows about the broadband scam.

He is a mystery man because I see no reason why he should have anything to do with the questioned transaction.

Nobody has asked Romulo Neri, acting chairman of the Commission on Higher Education and former director general of the NEDA, why he brought Lozada to that meeting in Wack Wack Golf and Country Club.

He must have been told a lot or heard a lot about the scandal. What he heard was not have been flattering to the First Gentleman. That is why he keeps himself scarce and has defied a summons by the Senate.

Was Lozada involved in negotiating the deal? If he was, he was a square peg in a round hole. His job is largely forestry which is remotely related to the broadband.

Neri must be held responsible for the presence of Lozada in the Wack Wack meeting. He had no business attending that confrontation among Neri, Benjamin Abalos, Joey de Venecia III and the First Gentleman.

Neri and Lozada would not have the gall to defy the summonses of the Senate if he does not enjoy the protection of powerful people in Malacañang. As a matter of fact, there is suspicion that he is staying in the Palace.

The duo must be forced to testify before the Blue Ribbon Committee. It is sheer arrogance and show of naked power on the part of powerful people to obviously prevent them from honoring the summonses.

Powerful officials in the Palace are scared of what Neri and Lozada might be forced to reveal to the Senate committee. The revelation could embarrass people in the seat of power. By refusing to testify, the two are practically covering up the truth. The more honest way of saying it is Malacañang is in a cover-up game.

Why should anybody be afraid of Neri and Lozada? Because they know a lot that has not been revealed? That is precisely the reason they should testify. That, incidentally, is also precisely the reason Malacañang does not want them to testify.

Let the axe fall where it may but not on the heads of powerful people in the Palace. That is what the refusal to honor the summonses is all about. And let us not have none of that executive privilege crap.

The fact that Romulo Neri has asked the Supreme Court to stop the Senate from arrest for not honoring a subpoena shows the extent of desperation of Malacañang people.

I remember the Supreme Court declaring as unconstitutional Executive Order No. 464 which prohibits high government officials from appearing before Senate or Congressional inquiries without the President’s approval.

This decision is now part of the law of the land. Yet Neri, in effect, is asking the Supreme Court to reverse its own ruling. Meaning change the law that it earlier made, rightly or wrongly.

What the effort indicates is that powerful Malacañang officials do not completely trust Neri as far as telling lies are concerned. Normally, to honor a SC edict, Malacañang should allow Neri to honor the summons and lie through his teeth in the investigation. Or as in the case of Jean Arnault in the time of President Quirino, refuse to testify but appear before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.

Arnault would not identify the person who was paid big amounts in the case of the Tambobong Buenavista scandal.

He was committed to prison for that. Neri is not prepared to spend time in jail. That is why he is in hiding.

Malacañang loudly proclaimed its officials are backing Neri to the hilt. Which means that the Palace is behind the cover-up of the ZTE broad band deal.

Tell us another, not that one

President Arroyo was reported as saying that she continues to support Jose De Venecia as Speaker of the House. This is a tongue-in-cheek way of avoiding a direct confrontation with the speaker.

Who are we going to believe? The President or her sons and their father? The brothers Arroyo, Mikey and Dato and their father Jose Miguel Arroyo, are widely known to be doing everything to throw De Venecia out as Speaker.

The trio are backing Davao Congressman Prospero Nograles.

Who is the boss here, anyway? The President who says she backs JDV or her husband and two sons doing everything within their power -- maybe something not even within their power -- to yank out JDV and install Nograles?.

Are we having a family feud in Malacañang? It looks more like a zarzuela to me.

If JDV loses the fight, what will that make of the President? That she is under the influence of her husband and two sons?. That to me is one of the more important reasons why she should step down.

Conversely, if JDV keeps his seat, the President would have shamed her husband and their two sons.

We have taken enough of the zarzuela from the Palace. This one beats them all.

We bannered the story of higher than 7 percent growth in the Gross Product last year. We do not doubt it although people say figures do not lie. It is the liars who figure. We are not a part of that.

We are talking here about a demand push that in turn raised the GNP.

It would have been better for the economy if the growth had been investment-led. But it was not. Proof is the market is flooded with imported goods from vegetables from China, to luxury cars from Europe.

There is heavy demand in spite of lack of jobs. An estimated 8 million Filipinos, about 10 percent of the population are fueling the demand by sending dollars to their dependents in the Philippines.

In effect, the economy is subsidizing the economies of more developed countries which export their products to the Philippines.

The statistics of the Bangko Sentral show that imports of consumptions goods are rising faster than imports of capital assets.

In a manner of speaking, a demand-led growth damages the economy instead of making it healthy over a longer period.