Truth, as our
readers see it

From Patty of Cebu: "Please don't believe that all Cebuanos love Gloria! Hindi oy, padalhan ninyo kami dito ng survey at lalabas ang katotohanan - lalo na sa lower middle class! The Senate hearings on the ZTE have opened our eyes wide, to the corruption of the Arroyos and their cohorts. I am so incensed at that trio of Enrile, Miriam and Joker. Labaw na si Joker. To think I believed him when he said "Pag bad ka, lagot ka". 'Yun pala, pag-good ka, lagot ka!" I truly regret having voted for him."

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From Mon Mayuga of Germany: "The media clamor saved his life and the truth he carried in his head. But his scary brush with the "president's men" (which reminds me of J. Edgar Hoover's G-Men). and the manner by which they took him smacks of abduction and attempts to withholding of evidence or obstruction of justice.

"The rule of law has become a myth in this country as the Arroyo administration gets notorious in its attempts to undermine constitutional democracy. Gloria Arroyo has succeeded in uniting strange bedfellows like erstwhile opponents Sen. Joker Arroyo who fought hard against the abuses of the Marcos dictatorship and Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile who defended them. Their own selfish interests rise above whatever virtue they have despite the unavoidable fate that their time is slowly but surely being shortened by their advancing age."

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Antonio Sy: "I am so grateful to have read your article (There's an Intsik in us all). I am a proud Chinoy who grew up in Manila but whose ancestry goes back to Sagay, Negros Occidental, and of course prior to that, from the village of Po Tao, near the city of Shi Shi in Fujian province.

"Although I am of Chinese extract, I am first and foremost, a Filipino. I was born, grew up and have very fond memories of my beloved country. I have no qualms to be identified as a Chinoy unlike some people who seem to have a problem with it . But what is certainly more important to me is Chinese is the adjective, Filipino is the noun. It's not the other way around.

"That's why I have always been telling the Federation that they should actually change their name into the Chinese-Filipino Chamber of Commerce and Industry (instead of the present Filipino-Chinese Chamber.) as it really makes a big difference as to where you indicate your loyalties".

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Senator Mar Roxas: "The people are tired of all these Gestapo tactics: EO 464 (which my Malacañng mole tells me was written by the same DES Manny Gaite who provided Jun Lozada with travel papers and a pabaon of half a million pesos), the use of surveillance and threats, excessive shows of force, abductions and extra-judicial killings, and the continued abuse of government power for political gain and survival".

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Edwin Lacierda of the FEU Faculty of Law, one of the lawyers who have been assisting Jun Lozada in the Senate hearings, and a regular ANC resource person: "I mass mailed your article to my Chinese batch-mates and friends. They all feel so proud being called "Intsik" and they are passing on the column as well."

In the last Senate hearing, when Jun felt that one of the pro-government resource persons seemed to be eavesdropping on Edwin's whispered counsel, the two switched to Fookien.

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Mon Sagullo: "It is no surprise that the government officials who were party to the abduction of Engr. Lozada at the NAIA had to lie through their teeth because this immoral and illegitimate government of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had been practicing the reward and punishment strategy, whereby those who toe the line are rewarded and those that do not are in for trouble.

"The great US President Abraham Lincoln once said: "Stand with anybody who stands for right; stand with him while he is right; and part with him when he goes wrong". That is the reason why many Filipinos are showing their support to Jun Lozada because he decided to part ways with this wicked president for he did not want to lose whatever remaining respect he has of himself. I therefore appeal, nay, beg the high government officials .to examine their conscience and if they still have love for country and self-respect, to resign and expose all the anomalies and irregularities they have knowledge of. and save themselves not only from the wrath of the people but most especially from eternal damnation."

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Ed Landicho: "It's a sad state of affairs when every time we aspire for something noble to occur in government, the country goes through the same cycle of corruption and mismanagement.

"You mentioned ancestry, of whom there folks belong to, be it bloodline or origin, and you are absolutely correct. Corruption goes beyond those lines. I can only wish that there will come a time when the likes of the old trapos eventually leave government and give the bright ones a chance. Good governance will be hard to realize as long as we keep electing people who were recycled from the dark days of Martial Law. Politics has become a popularity contest, handed off to next of kin - politics and government becoming a playground for the rich and famous. People are bombarded with images of grandeur and high society that they forget that whoever they elect will hold the country as a personal trophy."

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Julio A: "Your description of this coven, of this cabal squatting in Malacañng being a 'criminal syndicate' is most appropriate.

"Yes, you are right when you wrote "Indeed, there is God". Know too that there is Karma and there is Retribution; and Justice for Gloria must be meted out on a cold plate by the hands of the very people she abused, tortured, and hounded. And this must be allowed to come to pass in memory of all those who were killed or who lost their lives needlessly under her watch."

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Raul B. of Makati first expressed thanks for our "gripping narration" of the events that led to Jun Lozada's rendezvous with destiny. Then he adds: "My wife and I have always told each other that God won't allow evil to triumph. And he has proven that our faith is not without basis. Seeing all those nuns and the La Salle brothers on TV, a thought struck me. What would happen, I wondered, if all the nuns, priests, and other religious, and even bishops in their habits, would march through the streets of Metro Manila in silent protest against the coven of evil, like what the monks of Myanmar did?"

Oh, how we so pray indeed! Certainly not the Talamayans and the Villenas of Cagayan Valley, they who have the gall to say that "one way truth is suppressed is when inquiries and investigations become instruments of propagandizing and vendetta".

Are these bishops still faithful shepherds of the Lord's flock? Or have they changed their dioceses for the stinking palace beside the stinking river?

Truth is not anybody's privilege. Truth is everybody's duty to discover, and then, to tell.