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The public reaction was rather unexpected when Sen. Juan Ponce
Enrile revealed the P2 million plus in taxpayer money spent for
NBN-ZTE witness Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada. Instead of supporting
Lozada, the public thought that the expense was undeserved. After
all, Lozada enjoyed the support of some elements among the religious
who have money to spend for his security.
More surprising was Sen. Nene Pimentel’s
support for Enrile’s move to determine whether or not it is proper
to spend taxpayers money for Lozada’s security and upkeep. It is
said that in the Senate, what Enrile supports, Nene opposes—but
not in this case.
Many suspect that Lozada may have spent that
money in the many speaking tours he had in the provinces. Surely,
these barnstorming activities are no longer related to his Senate
testimony. These expenses should be borne by his political
supporters who believe in his cause. But to get them from tax money
is inappropriate. In our country, the rule is you enjoy the Bill of
Rights, but you cannot use tax money without appropriation by
Congress.
Lozada’s P2 million expenses was the subject
of conversation in a recent major gathering of lawyers in Naga City.
One of the topics discussed on the side was the boycott staged by
many priests against the star witness from Bicol. It was said that
the Archdiocese of Nueva Caceres has discouraged priests from saying
mass for Lozada, saying that the Eucharistic Celebration is not
imbued with politics.
My sources said that it would have been easy for
the Catholic Church in Bicol to bend backwards to accommodate the
witness in the religious masses, especially since Lozada is a
product of the University of Santo Tomas. Remember that Nueva
Caceres Archbishop Leonardo Legazpi was the first Filipino rector of
the Dominican university.
The lawyers also recalled that UST officials
like Fr. Tamerlane Lana and Fr. Rolando de la Rosa appeared cold
towards Lozada in his visits to UST in the aftermath of his Senate
testimonies. The UST rector once said—and this was reportedly said
right in the presence of Lozada and former President Cory Aquino—that
the only acceptable way to change the national leadership is through
the Constitution. That was a clear rebuff coming from the Dominican
leaders.
Those who are in the know say that the Dominican
leadership is not very fond of their now-famous alumnus. The talk is
that the Dominicans know Lozada better than we all do. But that
problem is for Lozada and his mentors to sort out.
Lozada has said that he would continue with his
speaking engagements in the universities. That is his right and we
should defend his prerogative so long as tax money is not used.
Free texting idea good
I am glad that Speaker Prospero Nograles is
supporting this idea by the Department of Transportation and
Communications and to give free text to our people. Nograles, over
the weekend, has directed the appropriate committees of the House to
study the provisions of legislative franchises given to telcos.
This proposal will be supported by the people,
specially if they found out that the original provisions of the
franchise show that texting is really free. It is also about time
that the state finds out if the telcos are undeservedly amassing
billions of pesos out of their franchises.
“We have to review the specifications of their
franchises. We are in the middle of a very difficult economic
situation and it will be of great help if we can remove the use of
SMS from their daily budget,” said Nograles.
Sufficient rice stocks
From Secretary of Agriculture, Arthur Yap, we
get this report. “Actually, the country has enough rice stocks,
with the expected 10 percent demand-supply gap already taken care of
by the contracted imports by the NFA, of which 700,000 MT will have
arrived by June, or just in time for the traditional July to
September lean months prior to the wet or main harvest season.
“The current contracted volume of the NFA is
now close to 1.7 million MT, which is equivalent to just 15 days.
Hence, the NFA will continue procuring rice—but this time either
through government-to-government transactions or directly from local
farmers this last month of the summer harvest season—not because
of a supply shortfall, as claimed by critics, but just to maintain
the 30-day buffer stocking up to the end of the year.
“On top of these contracted import volumes,
the DA is expecting the summer harvests to surpass 7 million MT,
which is high than last year’s dry crop yields of 6.7 million MT.
So far, field reports gathered by the DA-Rice Action Center showed
that the Department is on track in meeting this 7-million ton target
as initial harvests have already reached 6.59 million MT as of May
16.
“For the wet season, the DA is projecting a
harvest of at least 10 million MT, thereby enabling the department
to hit its 2008 target of 17.32 million MT.”
jules42na@yahoo.com
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