Tongue-lashing from GMA
I WOULD not guess whether Romulo Neri will tell all.
I am satisfied that he was quoted as telling Jun Lozada that
President Arroyo is evil.
But, if I have to believe my sources in Malacañang, Neri has
another ace up sleeve that would send the President going ballistic.
What I have been told is that the President lashed out at
Neri and ordered him to approve the ZTE contract under the guidelines that she
herself is said to have drawn up.
The first instruction was to avoid the
"build-operate-transfer" mode and go for a loan.
Neri was even told, according to a particular source, to drop
other projects such as, military and police housing and the rehabilitation of
the Angat Dam which are already in the pipeline.
Noting the anomalies, Neri refused to approve the contract
and said so in public.
To avoid suspicious that Neri is stubborn when asked to do
wrong, he was forthwith named acting chairman of the CHed.
"Acting" because the law covering the CHed states that its
chairman must have an earned Ph. D.
Let us wait and see if Neri can be handled by Malacañang to
its own advantage although the refusal to approve the ZTE contract is not a good
sign. The way I see it, Malacañang is nice to Neri because he has a bag of beans
to spill.
Stupid to give up the ODA
The only problem for those who want to make money from ODA
loans such as Japan Bank for International Development is to make sure that the
bidding is transparent.
In some cases, the donors insist that the contracts be
awarded to its own businessmen.
The government is also asked to make a peso counterpart of as
high as 30 percent.
But in the case of JBIC, the counterpart is even provided
although at commercial interest rates.
There is hardly any downside in ODA-financed projects. The
work is done according to specifications; the government spends very little
amounts in interest cost.
But then ODA projects deny the chiselers the opportunity for
bribes and overprice.
That might well be why the President cancelled 10 of them.
Which proves what many suspect: There is too much money to make from projects
financed by loans from China.
On the other hand, there is very little to make from ODA-assisted
infrastructure.
The choice is between big bribes and overprice and saving the
government huge amounts in interest cost plus the integrity of the project. The
choice of the President is obvious.
‘Thou shalt not bear false
witness’
I have been told that Dante Madriaga, known as former
consultant in the Department of Transportation and Communications, might be the
next witness in the investigation of the ZTE scandal.
I would not guess what he will say before the Senate Blue
Ribbon Committee.
What I do know is that he has been saying a lot of old tales
already mentioned by several witnesses who appeared before the Blue Ribbon.
I am a bit scared of Madriaga. I know that he offered Sen.
Panfilo Lacson supposedly new unheard of documents regarding the scandal.
But then an adviser of Lacson told me that Madriaga wanted a
reward – maybe money.
Lacson immediately turned him down. Not learning from the
first lesson, he reportedly went to Joseph Estrada offering the same rotten bill
of goods.
He wanted a bigger reward. Estrada showed him the door. There
are booby traps all over the investigation. I hope Madriaga’s, if he testifies,
is not one of them.
I won’t trust Noli either
Archbishop Oscar Cruz does not trust Vice President Noli de
Castro as a potential president. Neither do I.
I have always been uncomfortable with people who get
recognition because of their exposure in media.
Very few of them are fit for public office.
Kabayan Noli is not.
When he was in broadcast TV, his audience believed that he
was reporting the news from the top of his head. No, he never did that. He could
not do it. Nobody does.
They have the so-called "idiot box" where the "readers" or
"anchors" read the news but make it appear they are not reading at all.
I do now know any better than Kabayan Noli. But if he would
oblige, I would be too happy to debate with him on any subject. No script.
The voters are entitled to have full knowledge of the
capabilities or lack of them of their leader.
I think there is too much empty space between the ears of
Noli. He is handsome, telegenic, yes. But does that qualify him to lead a
country battered to the bone by the President he won with?
The presidency is not a popularity contest. It needs brains
to even gun for it.
Bow and arrow
It was most stupid for Malacañang to say that the search for
truth must be accompanied by justice.
The search for truth is necessarily accompanied by justice
and fairness. The means does not justify the end.
Is there injustice in the search for truth in the ZTE
scandal? There is, on the part of government.
Who reportedly took bribes? Not the senators. Who abducted
Jun Lozada? Not the senators.
These are all acts of injustice clearly calculated to stop
the Senate from getting to the truth.
Who is committing injustice? The witnesses against the ZTE
contract or government people trying every known trick to prevent the truth from
coming out?
Justice and truth are almost synonymous. They are like a bow
and an arrow. Useless each without the other, to quote Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow’s "The Song of Hiawatha."
