GOTCHA By Jarius Bondoc. The Philippine Star, Friday, October 5, 2007
Don’t worry, a Cabinet source assured me. The national broadband network deal with ZTE Corp., declared dead on President Arroyo’s arrival in
It’s mere face-saving, the official said. Malacañang has lost. But it needs to show till the end the imagined need for an exclusive state telecoms setup, which it failed to justify in Senate hearings. If the executive doesn’t posture, the suspicion will be confirmed that certain officials rushed into the project only for kickbacks.
The Palace also needs to exhibit some toughness. Otherwise, political foes would rush in to fill the vacuum created by weakness. Malacañang has had to make a series of retreats from the $330-million telecoms supply deal. Restrained by the Supreme Court from implementing, Palace factotums at first pleaded for understanding of a contract that they refused to divulge. Then, faced with exposure of the deal brokers, Malacañang suspended the already restrained contract in the vain attempt to end a Senate inquiry. Next, Comelec chief Benjamin Abalos, whom the executive was defending, had to resign to avoid impeachment that can open bank records and embolden witnesses. Arroyo’s sudden cancellation of the deal, while meeting with the Chinese President, aimed again to induce the Senate to end the live-telecast hearings.
Palace aides were peeling eggshells from their faces. And so Ermita had to mumble that maybe Malacañang telecoms men will someday resume the NBN, although surely not anytime soon. But the Cabinet source requested me to dampen that story, lest it incite people to march in anger against pig-headed leaders. To think that I didn’t even hear of groups ready to march.
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Still, let’s hope that Malacañang men learn that obstinacy is a sin.
To this day, led by Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol, they insist that Abalos shouldn’t have resigned because innocent. They loudly assert that he never offered a P200-million bribe to anyone at Wack Wack Golf Club or elsewhere. Abalos is not a crook, they cry.
What does that line make of their erstwhile Cabinet colleague Romy Neri? Was it not he who swore that Abalos tried to buy him into approving the NBN, but refused to divulge anything else about it? Are Apostol and company inferring that since Abalos is telling the truth, then Neri must have concocted the attempted bribery story? In the next Senate hearing, will they accuse Neri of perjury?
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Speaking of Senate hearings, presidential spouse Mike Arroyo looks recovered enough from heart surgery to attend the next one. In the past two weeks he zipped like a youthful vacationer into seven European and Asian cities. And upon return to
During Arroyo’s absence, his spokesman Jesus Santos had confirmed that indeed he was in Wack Wack that morning Joey talked about, but allegedly only by chance. Secretary Leandro Mendoza and Abalos too corroborated that first part of Joey’s narrative. But
Arroyo repeated all those lines: “‘Back Off’ is not in my vocabulary”, “I was there only by coincidence”, “I met Joey there for the first time”, and “I merely cautioned Joey against contracting with the government since he’s the Speaker’s son”.
Since Arroyo was accused in the Senate, it would be best for him to refute Joey also in the Senate. It would be best too for people to hear how a gentleman, three minutes after making acquaintance with someone, would be lecturing him on graft and corruption.
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It pays to have pals in Philippine literary circles, especially in tight spots.
During the Sept. 26 clash at the Senate of titans Romy Neri and Ben Abalos, Sen. Jamby Madrigal was at a loss for Filipino words for “fall guy” and so asked if any of the resource persons know. As the only writer there, with a thrice-weekly Filipino column at that in Pilipino Star Ngayon, I felt embarrassed at failing to help her out. But poets from my old Literature school, apparently watching the hearing live on TV, swiftly “texted” some answers. One sent “sangkalan”; another, “tagasalo”. I liked the third best: “basurero, hehe, becos tagalinis ng basura ng iba.”
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