A source said before Neri appeared in the Senate, Malacañang emissaries told him that he could talk about the deal up to the level of former Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos, but he could not implicate Gloria Arroyo and her husband Mike. If he did, details about his "Brokeback Mountain" affair would find their way to media.

The source said the main character in Malacañang’s "Brokeback Mountain" blackmail on Neri is named "Tom." Some have started talking about a government official’s "La Loma" lover, referring to a district in Manila notorious for its gay bars.

The source said Neri may be able to deal with physical threats from powerful people involved in the deal but dreads the scandal with the disclosure about his relationship with "Tom."

Friends who held a prayer rally in front of Neri’s residence (No. 28 Palale St., Banawe, Quezon City) three days before his Senate testimony to prevent him from going with the presidential entourage to the United States remember a tall, well-built, good-looking guy in his 40’s who came out and told them that the Higher education secretary could not come out because he was running a high fever.

Our inquiries about Tom revealed that he is known to offices where Neri has worked because he is the dependable companion. A number of contractors reportedly discovered Tom as the effective connection to clinch contracts for foreign- assisted projects that required the approval of the National Economic Development Authority that Neri once headed.

The source said he is not sure if "Tom" had succumbed to the generosity of contractors and if Neri knows about them. But he said he would not really be surprised if they have accepted some "smiling money," the term used for bribes offered to differentiate it from money demanded by government officials from businessmen in exchange for giving them the contract.

If Neri is amenable to "smiling money," why did he refuse the P200 million that Abalos offered him? The source said Neri must have found the $200 million overprice too much that he didn’t want to be part of what he saw was an explosive transaction.

For a while, many thought that it was Rodolfo Noel Lozada, chief executive officer of Philippine Forest Corporation, who was Neri’s "other Brokeback Mountain half". Not true, although Lozada is close to Neri and was with the latter in several meetings on the NBN/ZTE including the one in Wack-Wack Golf Club where Mike Arroyo told Joey de Venecia "Back off".

Lozada was also present in another high- power meeting on the NBN/ZTE in Makati Shangrila where a foreign diplomat was present.

Lozada was supposed to testify in the resumption of the Senate investigation of the NBN/ZTE deal last week but backed off and was suddenly sent abroad by the Environment Secretary Lito Atienza.

The Senate has ordered the arrest of Lozada and Neri for ignoring their summonses as resource persons in the Blue Ribbon committee investigations. Neri , who turned 58 last Feb. 1, cannot be found by the Senate security team who was to serve him his warrant of arrest.

Gloria Arroyo’s men, however, said they were able to speak with him and even greeted him "Happy Birthday."

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said Neri was "in high spirits" and was "celebrating his birthday quietly." Bunye didn’t say if Romy was with Tom.