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Last Saturday a fellow observer said that there has
been a noticeable decrease in media attention to the testimony of
Air Force Sgt. Vidal Doble on the “Hello, Garci” tape.
He noted that the banner stories
are no longer about the Senate investigation into the wiretapped
conversations of the 2004 elections. Doble has been elbowed out of
the “upper fold” by the arrest of Mr. Jose Maria Sison and the
national broadband controversy.
If the Doble show is suffering
from lackluster performance, it is because the story has been
politicized. The media and the public know whose agenda it is to
revive the “Hello, Garci” controversy. In the run-up to the 2010
elections—where a new president will be elected—people are not
concerned anymore about what happened in 2004.
This is not to say that we are
not concerned about the truth, or about closure which some
politicized elements in the Catholic Church want. But when a
political figure from the opposition revives the issue, we are all
in doubt.
It seems that even the Senate is
not excited about the investigation. Hence, by way of compromise, or
to make sure that Sen. Panfilo Lacson is not antagonized, the
senators went through the motion of investigating. But this probe
would be at the level of the committees, not at the level of the
Senate meeting as one, like the last investigation on the case of
President Estrada.
Remember that the Senate is no
longer concerned about impeaching the President, the obvious
long-term agenda of the Doble exposé. The present is concerned
about regaining its lost glory—and, of course, for some
members—to prepare for the presidential elections. Nobody except
for a few would benefit or would be interested in the testimony of
Doble.
We shall await the separate
hearings of the committees of Senators Richard Gordon, Rodolfo
Biazon and Alan Peter Cayetano. Pardon me, but these committees will
be the media and public attention based on a boring topic manned by
an incredible witness.
If I were a senator, I would
rather study and discuss the need for reconciliation of the House
and Senate versions of the Cheaper Medicines Bill that has not yet
been signed into law. How about the Electric Power Industry Reform
Act (Epira) that led to more expensive power for investors and for
Juan de la Cruz? That also needs discussion. And, of course, the
budget that is always late.
China ’s PR in RP too late
The Chinese firm ZTE, which
bagged the national broadband contract in the Philippines, has
placed advertisements in some newspapers in an attempt to earn
goodwill and recover lost ground in the media. But it seems that the
effort is too late.
ZTE has been subjected to the
most effective propaganda by the losing bidders, painting it as a
corrupt organization with a penchant to pay commissions to its
representatives to the Philippines. Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos
was the latest Philippine official to be linked to the ZTE. You can
almost see from the reportage that the side of Abalos is rarely
mentioned.
The side of ZTE, carried in its
half-page ads, is useless. The language is not up to the standard of
the Philippine media and its English is even incomprehensible. It
seems that the Chinese are trying to do the job on their own. They
don’t even have a spokesman in the country.
The Chinese should understand
that in the Philippines, perception is the reality. If the Chinese
products are perceived to be bad, they will be deemed bad. Look at
the spate of reports about Chinese products in the Philippines. They
have been pictured as shoddy—until the time that the Chinese
retaliated by saying that some of Philippine exports to Beijing are
also inferior!
In the light of the three
controversies, we have three options:
One is to continue with the NBN
contract under ZTE. If the state really believes that the contract
is fair, then proceed with it and ignore the criticisms.
The second is to review the
contract and open it to new bidding, as subliminally proposed by the
opponents of ZTE—the AHI and ARESCOM.
The third is to nullify the ZTE
contract, stop any new bidding, and just get our NBN services from
Globe and Smart. This is the proposal made by UP School of Economics
chairman Noel de Dios.
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