Ludicrous was the supposed “theft” of the contract of the NBN-ZTE deal, which I exposed in 2007. So I found intriguing this news item in The STAR last Saturday:
“The Sandiganbayan granted ex-president Gloria Arroyo’s request to move for dismissal of graft cases for the national broadband network deal. The anti-graft court gave her lawyers ten days to file the pleading halfway through trial, for the prosecution’s failure to prove accusations... Her lawyers said the (Ombudsman), after resting its case and presenting all its supposed evidence, were not even able to present the contract between the government and China’s ZTE Corp.”
Why haven’t prosecutors shown the contract? It’s not missing as initially claimed by Arroyo’s men. There are official copies at the Senate, which investigated the $329-million scam. Haven’t they bothered to get copies? Are they trying to lose the case?
There was an attempt to hide the contract. Arroyo signed it at the airport in Boao, Hainan, China, past midnight of Apr. 21, 2007. Leaving her husband’s sickbed, she “came and went like a thief in the night,” the Malacañang press office prophetically broadcast then, to ink six deals with Chinese state firms. From solid sources and documents, I exposed a $200-million kickback from NBN-ZTE alone. After which, the Dept. of Transportation and Communication made excuses to keep the contract from newsmen. Two months later they claimed that one of my sources, Joey de Venecia, and I stole the contract right after the signing. (I have never been to Hainan.) They even got a fall guy at the Philippine consulate in Guangzhou belatedly to “report” the “theft,” and an NBI gofer to harass us.
In the ensuing inquiry, however, senators ordered ZTE to produce its “un-stolen” copy. At first it refused, invoking confidentiality of proprietary information. It relented when the execs were threatened with jail time.
So the contract is there as evidence. Copies likely were given to the Ombudsman, along with the Senate’s recommendation to prosecute. So why hasn’t it been presented? Is similar lack of contract the reason why ex-Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos too was cleared of brokering the NBN-ZTE deal for $130-million commission?
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Another intriguing news item Saturday was in connection with the Abu Sayyaf’s kidnapping of another seven Indonesian ship crewmen, right after the release of five Malaysians:
“A Philippine (official) who declined to be named confirmed the abduction, blaming it on ransom payments. He said: ‘The problem with Indonesians, and also Malaysians, they throw money at the problem in the hope that it goes away with the money. They’ve been doing that for the longest time.’”
That’s wrong. It’s like blaming the victim of rape for wearing a dress, or of snatching for carrying a cell phone. The real fault is the inability of Philippine authorities to nab the terrorists and prevent any more sea attacks. And because of the frequency, the Philippines is turning into a Somalia. Already Jakarta has banned Indonesian vessels from sailing to the Philippines. Lousy law enforcement is to blame for it.
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And there’s an apparent whitewashing of the infamous “tanim-bala” extortion racket at the Manila International Airport. The odd timing of events points to it.
Last Thursday the Dept. of Justice spread to the press its dismissal of bullet-planting raps against four security x-ray screeners and extortion against three cops. Supposedly there’s no prima facie evidence that they had set up American tourist Lane Michael White for the shakedown. Lane had filed charges against them after they threw him in jail for refusing to pay up P30,000 when “caught” with a .22-caliber bullet in his carry-on in Sept. 2015.
Lawyer Ernesto Arellano, who had gotten White out of prison, smells a rat. They had presented CCTV footage of the events that fateful day. White uneventfully had flown from America with his father and Filipino stepmother, transited in China, and landed in Manila. The connecting flight to Palawan was cancelled, so the airline booked all the passengers for a few hours in a hotel, then hauled them back to the airport. There the main screener “searched” Lane’s bag seven times before “finding” a Philippine-made bullet in the easy-to-check outer flap. The stepmother swore that the airport policemen kept telling them that the offense would cost White P80,000 plus jail time, but could fix it for P30,000. Then came news reporters Raoul Esperas and Dominic Almelor, who had heard of the commotion, knocking on the interrogation room door for an interview. Whereupon the cops abruptly decided to book White for illegal possession of ammo.
Arellano suspects the DOJ’s to be one of the notorious midnight rulings of any departing admin. President Noynoy Aquino severely had been criticized for the extortions that victimized foreigners and overseas Filipino workers. The MIA is under his cousin and Liberal Party president, who both defend the extortionists.
Weeks ago the airport screeners’ supervisor had complained to the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas that Esperas and Almelor purportedly concocted the bullet-planting reports. Esperas retorted by reiterating his old question to the Office of Transport Security: where are the bullets it supposedly confiscated from the 4,000-plus “erring passengers”? And how come the OTS is so good in detecting small bullets in bags, but not tens of kilos of meth in valises of drug mules who eventually get caught in neighboring capitals, thus warranting death penalties?
What media concoction, Sec. Persida Acosta asks of the OTS. Her Public Attorney’s Office has recorded 70 extortion victims since late 2015, and gotten 60 Filipinos out of false raps (the rest were foreigners who paid up just to be able to leave at once). She had helped White sue the extortionists last Dec., based on the judge’s findings of his frame-up. The DOJ exoneration of the airport crooks came in Feb., but was released only last week. Neither the Lanes nor their lawyer Arellano have been informed of it. Acosta got a copy of the exoneration only from a reporter.
The OTS suddenly has come out with a reinterpretation of the law. Henceforth, if only one bullet is being “sneaked out,” it shall be considered an innocent amulet. The OTS and DOJ are striving to erase traces of the shameful extortion scam before P-Noy et al depart.
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Meanwhile, 70 supposed drug dealers have been slain in “shootouts” with cops since Rody Duterte’s presidential election. That’s more than double the 31 narco-traders killed from Jan. 1 to May 9 (Election Day).
The surge of drug killings are under operations that sycophantic police commanders horribly name after the incoming President: RODY, or Rid Our Streets of Drug Pushers and Youths, er, unaccompanied minors who should be home after curfew.
Duterte had won on an anti-drug, anti-criminality platform. He also warned cops in cahoots with drug lords with stiff punishment: “I will kill you.” All of a sudden the commanders know who the drug dealers are in their locales, and the hideouts to raid. Duterte and his incoming National Police chief suspect that either the commanders are just trying to be noticed, or are rubbing out the drug lords with whom they’re in cahoots.
Note, however, that no big narcotics producer has been nabbed.
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