The question now is…will Romy Neri rise to the occasion or scoot back into the shadows in a whimper?
According to Winnie Monsod, she has “it from the most unimpeachable sources that his (Joey deV III) father was trying mightily to dissuade him from coming out — until Joey asked him point blank: Pop, do you really want me to stand aside while the Filipino people are robbed of $200 million?”
Wow!!! Talk of pleasant surprises! When the going got rough and the character of the man was tested, Joey de Venecia III didn’t disappoint. Credit Speaker Joe de V for raising his son well… an improvement over the father who apparently didn’t readily get the moral and patriotic issues involved… JdV III is a definite generational plus… Luli’s opinions notwithstanding. In the Speaker’s own words: “He (Joey III) was an agent of some form of moral regeneration.”
Indeed, the younger de Venecia’s question to his father is “the bottom-line question — for both the President and the Senate,” as Mareng Winnie underscored. It is the bottom-line question too for Romy Neri, if he faces the joint hearing of three Senate committees today.
I have rarely seen eye-to-eye with Romy because I thought he has compromised intellectual honesty, in the sense of delivering some half truth interpretations of economic data in the course of his watch at NEDA. But I will concede that he still has that reformist streak we all acquired during our UP days in the late ’60s. I hear he got kicked out of NEDA because an influential businessman very close to Ate Glue didn’t appreciate Romy’s insistence on breaking up the port monopolies.
Still, I often get the feeling the pomp and splendor of high public office may have gotten into him somehow in the service of Ate Glue. But there are people who say I should not give up prematurely on Romy Neri doing the right thing for the country. Does this mean he will not allow the Filipino people to be robbed of $200 million?
I don’t know what to make of Romy Neri’s body language when he was asked pretty pointed questions about the broadband deal by ANC’s Ricky Carandang. All I know is that if Romy wanted to lie with a straight face like some of his Cabinet colleagues, he wouldn’t have said he couldn’t confirm or deny that something funny happened in connection with the NBN deal. He would have denied it outright and earn brownie points with Ate Glue.
According to reports, Romy confided to friends that he was offered P200 million to approve the ZTE deal, that he had informed Ate Glue about the bribe offer and that Ate Glue told him to reject the bribe, but approve the contract anyway. That’s one hell of a story. If he confirms that narrative in the hearing today, it is going to have serious repercussions. Now that Ate Glue is letting him testify instead of bringing him to New York, I am no longer as sure.
From what I know of Romy, he is a simple man… a bachelor… who is happy with his books and a round of golf now and then. He shouldn’t be afraid of losing his job because he can always go back to academe. His needs, like resigned Energy Secretary Popo Lotilla, appear to be simple. He isn’t the kind of guy who would lose sleep for having rejected P200 million. He may try and present a rosier picture of the economy than is warranted, but then again, the state of the economy is often in the eyes of the beholder… it can be argued in many ways.
But Romy looks like the type who would worry about having to give false testimony. He has also been quoted as declaring to Ate Glue and other fellow Cabinet members that he does not intend to commit perjury. Maybe that’s why he had a bad case of intestinal flu and missed the hearing last week. He probably won’t volunteer information unless the right question is asked. But if asked, he is said to have promised to answer truthfully.
Now, all eyes are on Romy Neri. He has center stage. Will he have the guts of Joey de Venecia III, who didn’t seem the type and had far more to lose than him? We can only wait and see if he even shows up.
NBN, CyberEd and budget
House minority leader and San Juan City Rep. Ronaldo Zamora is correct. The supposedly unfinished contract with ZTE Corp. of China will have a major impact on the deliberations for the P1.227-trillion national budget presented by Ate Glue’s administration to Congress. The P15.5 billion for NBN and P26.5 billion for CyberEd or a total of P42 billion can’t be considered small potatoes that are now being decided on solely by the executive branch.
This is precisely the point I had been making… the executive branch is sidestepping Congress’s exclusive right to appropriate funds by entering into loan agreements for projects whose propriety and need are not vetted out in congressional deliberations. If the present procurement law allows the executive branch to do this sort of thing, Congress must pass an amendment to this procurement law. Hopefully, the Supreme Court declares it unconstitutional first.
New chemical element
I got this from an e-group and I am not sure the one who sent it wants to be identified. But it is too good to pass up.
The recent graft and corruption issues are proof of the existence of a new chemical element. A major research institution has recently announced the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element has been named Governmentium.
Governmentium (Gv) has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.
Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A minute amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would take less than a second what would normally take over four days to complete.
Governmentium has a normal half-life of three years; it does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium’s mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.
This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass.
When catalyzed with Money, Governmentium becomes Administratium — an element which radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons. When catalyzed with MORE MONEY, Governmentium and Administratium combine to become a true dastard of an element, Atemugloriam popularly referred to as Ate Glue.
Difference
In the wake of the JocJoc scandal, various Comelec scandals and now the ZTE scandal, I got this txt message.
Q: What’s the difference between Ate Glue’s administration and the mafia or other organized crime syndicates for that matter?
A: The organized part... buti na lang!
Boo Chanco ‘s e-mail address is bchanco@gmail.com