Philippines = Corruption

What on earth is exactly happening to our country? First of all, I salute Mr. Rodolfo Lozada for having enough guts to stand in front of the senate and testify everything that he knows about the ZTE Scandal, Kudos to you man! the whole Philippines is hungry for the truth....



Here's a very well presented facts and personal opinions of one of my favorite columnist Mr. Rey O. Arcilla of The Malaya Newspaper. I completely agree to this, looks like PGMA is eyeing on the same route as Thaksin Shinawatra's... (Ooooh, a little originality won't hurt maam') read on guys:
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Ms. Arroyo said she had the ZTE deal "discreetly investigated" and found reports of bribery were "uncorroborated." (Imagine a contorted smiley at the end of this sentence.) Now that CHED chairman Romulo Neri stated under oath that Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos offered him a bribe of P200 million and that he (Neri) told her about it, shouldn’t that be enough corroboration? Or will she say Neri’s testimony must be corroborated as well? That would be tantamount to calling him a liar. He’s a member of her official family.

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Didn’t Ms. Arroyo break the law when, after Neri had told her of the bribe offer to him of P200 million by Abalos, she still approved the ZTE deal? She even left her sick husband and went to Boao, China, to witness its signing. Come to think of it, what her trumpeters said then seems very apt. They boasted that she successfully bagged the multimillion-dollar Chinese contracts "like a thief in the night" or something to that effect.

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Apparently, Ms. Arroyo believes that one of the best ways to defuse or kill a controversy is to create a commission, panel, committee or what-have-you ostensibly to investigate or prevent it from happening again. In the wake of the ZTE scandal, Ms. Arroyo created the Procurement Transparency Group (PTG) that would "ensure transparency and good governance in our massive public investments."
Not content with that, she also created a special panel to "oversee projects" under the China official development assistance program. She called it the Pro-Performance and Transparency Group under Trade secretary Peter Favila. There was no need to create those bodies. There are existing ones whose functions cover those she spelled out for both, namely, the Ombudsman and the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC).

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Sometimes I wonder, aside from being identified as an administration ally, if Senator Joker Arroyo is more than just a namesake of the squatter in Malacañang. First, he said the Senate was spending too much time on the ZTE scandal. I don’t think so. If it would mean sparing the taxpayers of having to pay a rotten deal $329 million in the next 20 years, the Senate can spend as much time as it needs to get to the bottom of the scandal.
Then he was reported to have "stopped" CHED chairman Neri from spilling the beans on Ms. Arroyo during the executive session held by the Senators immediately after the last hearing on the ZTE deal. If true, I say Senator Arroyo would do well to drop his pretenses and start lawyering for his namesake.

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Except for what in my view were a couple of mis-steps, there is no doubt US Ambassador Kristie Kenney is a darn good diplomat. For one thing, her timing is impeccable. With the growing "closeness" of the Arroyo regime with rival China evidently in mind, Kenney wasted no time giving reassurance that the US remains bullish on the Philippines despite the raging controversy over the ZTE deal. Neat.

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Not to the be outdone, however, the economic and commercial counselor of the Chinese Embassy said a couple of days later that despite the suspension of the projects ordered by Ms. Arroyo and the Supreme Court, economic and trade cooperation between the Philippines and China will not be affected. "In China, we believe that a friend in need is a friend indeed," he said.

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Shinzo Abe resigned as Japanese prime minister when his popularity rating dipped because of several gaffes. Two of his agriculture ministers resigned for reasons of propriety. In Thailand, three cabinet members have resigned over some irregularity or difference of opinion with the ruling junta. The latest resignation involves the interior minister who acknowledged that his ministry bought $188,000 worth of canned fish from a company which he partly owned. Here? Forget it!

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Hernando Perez, former justice secretary in Ms. Arroyo’s cabinet, must be a happy man these days.
Businessman and former Manila Rep. Mark Jimenez has "unconditionally" withdrawn the extortion complaint he filed with the Ombudsman against Perez for allegedly demanding from him $2 million in 2001.
Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez had earlier said it was established that Perez took advantage of his position to demand the $2 million from Jimenez in exchange for excluding him as respondent in the plunder case filed against former President Joseph Estrada. For some reason, the case against Perez never reached the Sandiganbayan. Perez has maintained that the accusation against him was baseless. Somehow, I feel Jimenez must be happy too. I wouldn’t be surprised if he got his money back and perhaps more. In fact, he was reported to have said "I am rich again" after announcing his decision to drop the case against Perez.