Alphabet of corruption

October 18, 2007  --  Got something to say?
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Nestor MataBy Nestor Mata
Get ready, and lets sing: AB ZTE FG? HIJ Patay C GMA, KLM UPQ RST, UVW XY and Z? Now I know my ZTE dis will bring down GEE EM EEE!”
So goes the new alphabet of corruption in the scandal-hounded administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, aka GMA, now being sung to the tune of the good, old nursery rhyme A B C in Manilas kaffeeklasch or sent by the humor mongering brigade in society in their Txt Msgs via email, pager, or mobile phones.
This new scandal, as the whole world now knows, is the ZTE/NBN deal, otherwise known as the US$329 million National Broadband Network contract with the Chinese firm Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment Co. or ZTE.


Not even the array of Cabinet men and women, led by the Little President” Eduardo Ermita, could stop the joint investigating committees of the Senate from probing into the ZTE deal that is shrouded by allegations of corruption, kickbacks and bribes.
Neither did the dismaying sideswipes hurled unbecomingly by the usually demure First Daughter against JDVs son, the star witness in the Senate probe, help save her mother GMA and father FG from being linked to the questioned deal.
Nor did GMAs last minute suspension of the ZTE contract convince the senators to stop unearthing the truth about the stink emanating from the Palace along the Pasig River. The investigation will go on, Senate president Manny Villar said. We dont want a suspension. We want a cancellation of the project because we dont need the project that is clearly overpriced!”
Other senators echoed Villars call. And members of the influential Makati Business Club joined the fusillade against the questioned contract and also called for the scrapping of the deal.
The ZTE deal is the latest of innumerable cases facing the scandal-hounded administration of GMA. It is, in the considered view of objective observers, a scandal that has the potential of waking up the same middle class sector of society that helped bring down the Marcos regime and abbreviated the term of the constitutionally elected Joseph Estrada.
Like the scandalous ZTE contract, those other corruption cases, doggedly denied by GMAs minions, came to light ever since she came to power illegally six years ago. Those other scandals, marked by intimations of kickbacks, bribes and money-laundering, also carried their own initials like ZTE.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRmHHo0aFlQ

Lets start with the $2 million extortion cases against one of GMAs key Cabinet member in 2001. This was followed by the overpriced PDM boulevard; then the P200 million JP cases implicating the FS or First Spouse; the $503 million NR project, also involved another Chinese corporation, and described as one of the colossal corrupt deals of the GMA administration; the P728 million FF scam as engineered by a key GMA official bearing the initials JJJB; the P1.3 billion EC deal fixed by certain Comelec officials, all, all of them stinking to high heavens.

As a matter of fact, these corruption cases stink, just like the nauseating odor emanating from the two polluted rivers of Marilao and Meycauayan that stung the olfactory organ of GMA?s newly-appointed DENR secretary a few weeks ago.
By the way, these two rivers have been included in the international list of dirty 30″ or worst-polluted places in the world. Oh yes, just like this country which has been listed by the international corruption watchdog as the most, OK the worst, corrupt in the world, covering the past six years of GMAs illegitimate presidency.
Yes, indeed, the ZTE deal is blossoming into a grand scale corruption case, whether GMA suspends, even cancels, it or not. And the Senate probe should not be deterred by high-level pressure from the powers that be. It should continue to unearth the truth about the questioned contract to serve as a deterrent to future irregularities and anomalies by those shadowy figures in the corridors of power. They must be stopped from stuffing their pockets with the spoils of public office!
When, oh, when will long suffering Filipinos, with all these cases of national disgrace and shame, cry out: Enough, enough already!


Posted by News Team | Filed Under Nestor Mata 

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