Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Insufficient Reply

Gloria Arroyo admitted that she had been told about the irregular ZTE deal. That did not stop her from rushing to China while her husband lay unconscious at the critical care unit and witness the signing of the contract. She also admitted that her economic planning minister told her about the offer of the chief vote counter to throw him a 200 million peso cut in the action in exchange for his cooperation.

She admitted she was concerned the Chinese might “lose face” if she cancelled the entire deal at that time even if the kickback in question was to the tune of $130 million, certainly no small change for a country with a massive shortage of classrooms, a barely present healthcare delivery system, 50 million diets perennially short of protein.

Six months passed between the revelations and the actual scrapping of the contract. Covered in this period was the May 2007 elections which raises a very disturbing consideration. How will we teach our citizens to respect their sovereign right to vote if all you need to take care of is the obscene retirement package of Ben “counter” Abalos?

No Mrs. Arroyo, your explanation is totally wanting. You are telling us what we already all know. Your obfuscating silence on other matters simply confirms that you manipulated your election in 2004, it doesn’t make a difference that most of your fellow traditional politicos were likewise engaged in subverting the will of the people and therefore had no moral credibility to accuse you of the ultimate betrayal that a leader can inflict upon her people.

This might just be the opportunity for Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez to redeem himself. He used to be with the people. Mrs. Arroyo has admitted she had been advised about the irregularities, now he needs to do his job and conduct an impartial investigation and earnestly seek the truth amid this sordid mess.

And we will all see how fast this fancy tableau crumbles.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

An impartial investigation on Gloria Arroyo by Raul Gonzalez? That will only happen when hell freezes over. Maybe not even then.

A reality check is in order here. There's being hopeful, and then there's just being stupid. Take a look at all of Gonzalez's previous actions and statements. Then use your best judgment to gauge whether he can/will still conduct an impartial investigation.

Martin D. Bautista, M.D. said...

keep calm, anon. this might be the miracle all those nuns have been praying for. also, if you do take a look at Gonzalez's record during the Marcos era, you will see that he was a courageous and principled man.

Anonymous said...

Yes. That would be a miracle. Abalos used to be courageous and principled too. Look what happened to him.

pian said...

The main problem is that we have a very illegitimate democratic system. Our voters elect only those people who are popular and not if they are capable. The big dilemma if GMA is ousted, the VP will take over who was elected PURELY because he’s popular with the masses, and not because he’s capable to lead the nation. Our economy has never grown this much, I don’t want to take the chance by entrusting it to someone solely popular with the masses.
To prevent this transfer, no matter how believable Lozada initially is, his credibility is now being questioned. He admitted that a certain level of corruption is acceptable to him. Questions have arisen whether he was kidnapped, because his celphone was not confiscated, he dined in Outback restaurant, and he was able to go to the place he wanted to go all along, that is, La Salle Greenhills. I even read he committed a sin of omission regarding his consultation with the wife of Sen. Joker Arroyo. He didn’t correct the impression in which it appeared the wife invited him to her house to urge him not to testify, when the fact of the matter is (based on what I read) Lozada was the one who contacted the wife around September before Joey de Venecia testified, and he was crying and that he doesn’t want to testify. So the wife invited him to her house, and told him she couldn’t lawyer for him due to conflict of interest since her husband is a Senator, while he was then president of Philforest. She advised him then, since he was so distressed, that he doesn’t have to testify if he didn’t want to. Since this was one of those ordinary free consultations, she didn’t bother to tell Joker about it. So Joker was surprised when his wife was mentioned.
Jun Lozada is no Clarissa Ocampo at all.

Anonymous said...

Pian, please explain how our economy "has grown so much"

pian said...

TO ANONYMOUS
That would be what I meant about the illegitimacy of our democratic system. It’s always a question of whether GMA deserves the credit. If not, then it’s OK for the VP to take over, where the VP was voted PURELY because he’s popular with the masses, and not because he’s capable to run the country. That’s too risky for me. I don’t want to take a chance.

Anonymous said...

Pian, credit for what? The economy? Is it really better? How come majority of Pinoys want to leave the country in order to make a living for themselves?

pian said...

TO ANONYMOUS
The OFW phenomenon has been going on way past this administration.
Although the economic growth has not trickled down to the poor yet, there’s more hope now that this trickle down will happen because we have concrete growths, rather than no growth at all.

Anonymous said...

If it has not trickled down to the poor, who has benefited from it? The middle class?

Anonymous said...

Please illustrate how the economy has improved.

pian said...

TO ANONYMOUS
Like I said, the trikle down does take time. It doesn’t in an instant.
You want to know who benefited from it? I wouldn’t know, if the poor didn’t benefit, there is hope it will happen then no economic growth which means no hope at all. Mas OK siguro sayo ang na-growth scenario para wala nang duda.
Ang habol ko kasi pag mataas ang economic growth (na imposibleng iduktor) makakaattract sa foreign investors na consequently bring more jobs and the cycle goes on;
Regarding confirming if there’s indeed economic growths, they’re reported, right?