By Hader Glang
On the NBN-ZTE broadband scandal
The past few weeks we have witnessed another scandal that has gripped our country, this time the alleged anomalies in the government's National Broadband Network (NBN) with China's Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment (ZTE) Corp., wherein First Gentleman Jose "Mike" Arroyo and ex-Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos were linked to it.
In this political hullabaloo, the former election official with the alleged blessings of the First Gentleman was said to have asked for a commission of US$130 million in exchange for influencing the government's decision to award the broadband deal to the Chinese telecommunications company.
Actually the controversy started all last year, when Rep. Jose "Joey" de Venecia III, co-founder of Amsterdam Holdings Inc. (AHI), exposed the irregularities after he lost the bid, which offered to build the NBN at no cost to the government against the ZTE deal that required the government to secure a US$329 million loan from China.
JDV3 claimed that the government tried its darn best to cover the deal by pressuring him to stop talking about it in the Senate and in public, but he didn't want to cover up the truth, thus Malacañang led by congressman sons of President Arroyo spearheaded a revolt at the House which ousted his dad, then Speaker Jose de Venecia.
Until Rodolfo "Jun" Lozada, head of the Philippine Forest Corporation, surfaced amid the investigation and told the Senate that he was forced to come forward and tell the truth after a former Malacañang official allegedly instructed him to lie, but his testimony was an outright lie for the pro-administration.
The star witness initially didn't want to go to the Senate and take part in the investigation because as he said, if he ends up in the Senate, he will be forced to say the truth. But this led to his alleged kidnapping as soon as he arrived at the Ninoy International Airport from Hong Kong where he hid for a few days.
He testified that two men picked up him as soon as he got out of the plane and brought him around Metro Manila and even to Laguna against his will. This is really disgusting, if that can happen to Lozada who is a ranking government official that can happen to every Filipino citizen in this country.
In Lozada's words, when he was picked up against his will, he already thought about the late PR man Bobby Dacer who at the height of then President Joseph Estrada impeachment was also picked up by unidentified men and after weeks of looking for him, they finally found his body along with the body of his driver.
As he further said in his testimony, the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in our country now is that every government contract is overpriced by 20%, which goes to the pockets of our government officials who helped in pushing the deal. It's not surprising why the ZTE contract was greatly overpriced.
This is indeed disappointing since the P6 billion money can help build so many classrooms for our public school students, it can provide so many college scholarships to deserving students, it can help build public hospitals so people can receive proper health care and it can provide adequate housing to thousands of homeless families.
But in this case, the money will just end up in the pockets of one or maybe a few families and we will all have to pay for their greed. I wouldn't be surprised if another scandal comes out within the next few months because it seems that they are used to scandal, as they know they will eventually get away with it.
If you have watched the TV talk show dubbed: "HARAPAN, The Jun Lozada Exposé," aired over ABS-CBN on Saturday evening, February 16, you would really notice who is telling the truth. At the end of the show, the hosts bared that 92% of the viewers (texters) voted yes on the question "Do you believe Lozada" compared to no votes with only 8%.
It's so shame and depressing that our country has turned out to be the world's capital of scandals. The culture of corruption since Hispanic era up to the present has been here and worse, what our national leaders did was to add more problem than solution.
Our country might have had beaten other countries in terms of political and economic progress during the regimes of Marcos and the present if they (government officials) have implemented what was best for the entire nation and not for the sake of the few and their pockets.
What a sad state our country has become, but I know there is a solution to eradicate this mess if well not just sit idly, we must all work together and join forces against these evils of society who continue to corrupt and destroy our future. Wake up Mindanao!!!
In this political hullabaloo, the former election official with the alleged blessings of the First Gentleman was said to have asked for a commission of US$130 million in exchange for influencing the government's decision to award the broadband deal to the Chinese telecommunications company.
Actually the controversy started all last year, when Rep. Jose "Joey" de Venecia III, co-founder of Amsterdam Holdings Inc. (AHI), exposed the irregularities after he lost the bid, which offered to build the NBN at no cost to the government against the ZTE deal that required the government to secure a US$329 million loan from China.
JDV3 claimed that the government tried its darn best to cover the deal by pressuring him to stop talking about it in the Senate and in public, but he didn't want to cover up the truth, thus Malacañang led by congressman sons of President Arroyo spearheaded a revolt at the House which ousted his dad, then Speaker Jose de Venecia.
Until Rodolfo "Jun" Lozada, head of the Philippine Forest Corporation, surfaced amid the investigation and told the Senate that he was forced to come forward and tell the truth after a former Malacañang official allegedly instructed him to lie, but his testimony was an outright lie for the pro-administration.
The star witness initially didn't want to go to the Senate and take part in the investigation because as he said, if he ends up in the Senate, he will be forced to say the truth. But this led to his alleged kidnapping as soon as he arrived at the Ninoy International Airport from Hong Kong where he hid for a few days.
He testified that two men picked up him as soon as he got out of the plane and brought him around Metro Manila and even to Laguna against his will. This is really disgusting, if that can happen to Lozada who is a ranking government official that can happen to every Filipino citizen in this country.
In Lozada's words, when he was picked up against his will, he already thought about the late PR man Bobby Dacer who at the height of then President Joseph Estrada impeachment was also picked up by unidentified men and after weeks of looking for him, they finally found his body along with the body of his driver.
As he further said in his testimony, the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in our country now is that every government contract is overpriced by 20%, which goes to the pockets of our government officials who helped in pushing the deal. It's not surprising why the ZTE contract was greatly overpriced.
This is indeed disappointing since the P6 billion money can help build so many classrooms for our public school students, it can provide so many college scholarships to deserving students, it can help build public hospitals so people can receive proper health care and it can provide adequate housing to thousands of homeless families.
But in this case, the money will just end up in the pockets of one or maybe a few families and we will all have to pay for their greed. I wouldn't be surprised if another scandal comes out within the next few months because it seems that they are used to scandal, as they know they will eventually get away with it.
If you have watched the TV talk show dubbed: "HARAPAN, The Jun Lozada Exposé," aired over ABS-CBN on Saturday evening, February 16, you would really notice who is telling the truth. At the end of the show, the hosts bared that 92% of the viewers (texters) voted yes on the question "Do you believe Lozada" compared to no votes with only 8%.
It's so shame and depressing that our country has turned out to be the world's capital of scandals. The culture of corruption since Hispanic era up to the present has been here and worse, what our national leaders did was to add more problem than solution.
Our country might have had beaten other countries in terms of political and economic progress during the regimes of Marcos and the present if they (government officials) have implemented what was best for the entire nation and not for the sake of the few and their pockets.
What a sad state our country has become, but I know there is a solution to eradicate this mess if well not just sit idly, we must all work together and join forces against these evils of society who continue to corrupt and destroy our future. Wake up Mindanao!!!
