Editorial of the Bohol Chronicle dated September 26, 2007
Today, we urge all fellow Boholanos to be one in prayers for one of our own.
Today, former NEDA Chief, Romulo Neri - a Boholano - will be an expert witness in the controversial US$330-million National Broadband Network. The deal seemed to inordinately favor a Chinese telecom supplier called ZTE Inc. with a loan linkage from a Chinese bank.
Under oath, Neri will confirm if the P200-million bribe to him offered by perceived "chief broker" Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos is for real.
If that is true - as well as the allegation of ZTE rival (Joey de Venecia) that the First Gentleman Mike Arroyo pointedly (literally, now) asked him to "back off the deal" at the Wack Wack golf club (where Abalos is president) - then the ZTE stench that smells now - from Aparri to Jolo - will be linked to the Palace (or at least to FG).
The value of Abalos - as Comelec chief - cannot be overstated considering the Garci controversy of 2004 and the Maguindanao et. al. "magic" of 2007.
That Benjamin Abalos (a municipal judge fired by Ferdinand Marcos for alleged cause and linked to the botched Comelec election computerization scam) is linked to Palace interests could be as believable as the fact that "night follows day." Except in a lunar eclipse.
Not that Neri is bereft of unsolicited prayers. Already scores of organizations are doing prayer groups to give Neri the "light of the Holy Spirit" and the intestinal fortitude to tell the truth.
As certain as knowing the crow is black - his telephone is bugged.
Before he could testify last Thursday - shadowy figures cased Neri's house in Sta. Mesa Heights. When Secretary Ermita responded with PSG guards, it was found out the casers were reportedly "intelligence operatives."
Talks were wild in Manila the other day that Neri will be brought to New York for a U.N Conference (sic) - thus bodily preventing him from testifying at the Senate again today. Text messages circulated in the metropolis - egging Neri to be brave and exposed the game plan.
By evening, the Palace music had changed - it was mere "miscommunication" - and that indeed Neri will be staying to testify today.
According the Philippine Star, Neri almost resigned in April 19 because some powerful official arm-twisted him to change from his original position of "build operate and transfer" last year to a purchase with loan arrangement - to give way to ZTE's preference.
Hopefully Neri will belie claims that NEDA approved the NBN-ZTE deal because he said "NEDA merely endorsed the broadband concept, not the company."
The NBN-ZTE deal has been shot with controversies: Joey de Venecia claimed Abalos bribed him with US$10 million (P400 million) to get off the back of ZTE; a supply agreement/contract has been sealed prior to consultation with the Monetary Board for the loan portion; the original MOU was "lost" - reappeared and then "reconstructed" (though no one has seen it); it has reportedly been overpriced - moving from the original US$130 million to US$2690 million to the current figure of US$330 million.
Neri told Star columnist Jarius Bondoc (who had received death threats for breakfast as well) that a big-time businessman, who was assigned to raise election funds for the administration, lobbied for the last increase of US$60 million. Was this to be for reimbursement for the contributors to the administration campaign kitty?
What Secretary Romy (let's call him that) will explode in the Senate Halls today will define further his unsullied performance as a government professional. He said there is a "time and place for everything-" and the Senate will provide him his place in history today.
Every kind of mud has been thrown in his way by detractors of Neri -many of them we have heard. However, a good man wears a teflon and they just bounce off his body like inconsequential irritations.
When asked in the Senate, we know Secretary Romy will not perjure himself. We are confident his allegiance will be to the truth and the welfare of 80 million Filipinos - not bureaucrats and private suppliers salivating at the kickbacks in wait in this deal and elsewhere.
To say the least, Secretary Romulo Neri is a square peg in a round hole in a government operating in a country dubbed by independent appraisers as the "most corrupt nation in Asia."
At CHED he had canceled the P180-million calling center project and before blasted the cartel in the energy industry that had resisted economic reforms. Neri had doubted where Government can find the "pump-priming funds" to achieve a programmed GNP growth next year. Neri had likewise blown the whistle on 21 projects with ODA funds which have questionable overpriced tags and stopped their DBM funding.
On nationwide television he has called our own (Bohol Irrigation Project) BHIP-2 Project as excessive and illegal - condemned it as the most "expensive dam" and said that the NIA was "authorized to buy a Toyota and bought a BMW instead."
As Chief Economist-Secretary Neri knows much - maybe too much - about the economic highway robberies going on in our country.
What he will spill today will not end with ZTE - that is our prognosis. It will be the proverbial "Pandora's Box" that will shock the nation leading into other billions of corrupted deals going on in our country.
Secretary Neri will not just be therefore "The Man of the Hour," he will be "The Man of the Year" as the investigations continue into the other projects perhaps until the year is over.
It is therefore for all these reasons that we worry for the safety of our province-mate - a patriot in the making.
May God be with him today - and always.
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Topic: Man of the Hour: Romulo Neri, a Bol-anon (Read 3486 times)