So much hanging, “bitin and/or bitten”

There is an appropriate Tagalog term - bitin that connotes something left unresolved, hanging, without any closure, conclusion or resolution.

We are referring to the so-called final pronouncement of GMA after her latest China trip - "that the NBN deal is dead."

Does GMA really think that the probe into the deal ends with her Executive pronouncement just as the NBN deal, according to their version again, started out as an Executive agreement and therefore, needing only her imprimatur, and not that of Congress?

Does Malacañang want our people to think and China, as well, that the NBN deal is not pushing through because of the pushy stance of the Senate?

Or to phrase it another way, does the Executive want all to understand that GMA and her officials were never at fault, that they diligently did everything overboard, and to the benefit of the Filipino people?

The Senate probe has been very effective in ferreting out the contradictions of GMA and her cohorts in handling the NBN deal. There was the vagueness about the definition of the deal - was it Official Development Aid (ODA)? If so, it still needed Congressional approval. Finally, the administration officials were one in saying it was an executive agreement and was therefore, treated as one, with procedures for an executive agreement followed properly by all.

Not so, according to the Senate hearings. There seemed to be a number of steps neglected, bypassed or not accomplished by the administration pointed out by some senators.

One of the most glaring neglected or taken for granted procedure was to check on the veracity of the allegations (made not just once but twice against, by Neri, an administration official and Joey de Venecia, a bidder for the deal) that no less than the Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos offered bribe amounts to them related to the NBN deal.

 The question left hanging in the Filipino people's mind is why GMA, who was allegedly told by Neri himself about this alleged bribe offer did not do anything to investigate the bribe offer. Several questions follow that sin of omission - is bribery so common in the present administration that GMA did not seem to mind or be surprised about what Neri told her- she merely instructed him not to accept it. That's it?

Another question that follows that sin of omission is why GMA not only ignored the bribery allegation, why was she not also surprised why her appointed Comelec chief was so-called involved in the NBN deal and the allegations?

Another question that needs her answer is why she left her husband at the time he was at the hospital to serve as witness for the signing of this deal?

The unexpected resignation of Chair Abalos left more questions hanging. What prompted his resignation? Was it family pressure or delicadeza? Or was the heat getting too much? Was the Senate probe getting too close to involve not only the Chair but perhaps even GMA herself?

If Abalos had not resigned, the impeachment procedures would already have been started in Congress. Would De Venecia, the Speaker have allowed that to proceed or would he have blocked that impeachment? That would have exposed the true color and loyalty of the Speaker, whether to GMA or to his son?

Had the impeachment proceedings continued, would it have only been Chair Abalos in the hot seat, or would GMA herself, finally, be dragged and tagged as guilty of abuse of power with the NBN deal?

"Bitin" in Tagalog means hanging or suspended but in Visayan, "bitin" is snake while "bitten" in English means something else. Have the Filipino people been left in a suspended mode with the close of the NBN deal or with the resignation of Chair Abalos? Or is there so much attempt to hide the truth from the Filipino people and even the Chinese government and people related to the NBN deal that has not been completely resolved or probed? Who finally got "bitten" by whom or who finally was left "bitin" or who served as the "bitin" in this highly controversial NBN deal?

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