ZTE scandal maincast on ABS-CBN...

**badsekktor** · February 20th, 2008 04:44 PM

ang babaw naman ng defense ni abalos! yun papers nya dont prove na hindi niya sinabi yun threat kay lozada.....

I dont think he would attempt anything against lozada while everybody is watching.......

**cutedoc** · February 20th, 2008 05:32 PM

OT lang regarding harapan, did you notice lozada's eyes rolling, and then he winks, much like a person under drugs, or his eyes are like those of a cartoon character.

his eyes are very prominent as well, very protrusive, i think he has some metabolic disorder such as hyperthyroidism

**b1rken5tock** · February 20th, 2008 05:36 PM

Originally Posted by cutedoc

OT lang regarding harapan, did you notice lozada's eyes rolling, and then he winks, much like a person under drugs, or his eyes are like those of a cartoon character.

his eyes are very prominent as well, very protrusive, i think he has some metabolic disorder such as hyperthyroidism

probably due to stress/pagod/worries/takot...

**badsekktor** · February 20th, 2008 05:59 PM

Originally Posted by cutedoc

OT lang regarding harapan, did you notice lozada's eyes rolling, and then he winks, much like a person under drugs, or his eyes are like those of a cartoon character.

his eyes are very prominent as well, very protrusive, i think he has some metabolic disorder such as hyperthyroidism

hahahaha! kala ko ako lang nakapansin nun. actually meron part na si abalos na nagsasalita tapos si lozada eh inabutan ng liquor, I think it was beer... and yun mata nya! literally nag-roll habang umiinom!

parang looney tunes! natawa ako saka si wifey ng sobra nung makita namin yun! all the while tinitira sya ni abalos kaya siguro di masyado napansin.

Originally Posted by b1rken5tock

probably due to stress/pagod/worries/takot...

or maybe drunk. mukhang komedyante si lozada sa personal. yun mga patutsada nya saka hirit, komedy!

**jjmd3_787** · August 28th, 2009 11:13 AM

[SIZE=3]The Ombudsman is only doing her job . . . for GMA and FG. Kaya nga sina Abalos at Neri lang ang nakasuhan e.[/SIZE]

**oliver1013** · August 28th, 2009 08:41 PM

Napansin ko lang, andaming bumanat kay Lozada, diba dapat sina Abalos ang kalaban?:excl:

**Lucius** · August 28th, 2009 08:55 PM

Originally Posted by oliver1013

Napansin ko lang, andaming bumanat kay Lozada, diba dapat sina Abalos ang kalaban?:excl:

Because feeling bagets and cool sya LMFAO
[IMG]http://images.jankristoff.multiply.com/image/1/photos/upload/300x300/R*n6GgoKCqAAAFiAtm01/IMG_1860.JPG?et=snRY2Tf1VsCrvn2j6LaTWg&nmid=&nmid= 88082039[/IMG]

Dapat magpa-awa look effect ulit sya dahil kamukha naman sya ni Santino

Love that GMA portrait on the wall, ganda ng smile parang tinatawanan sya

**jjmd3_787** · August 28th, 2009 09:41 PM

Sobrang talino nila GMA et al na pag lumaban ka sa kanila ay sisirain nila ang private at public life mo . . . yan ang nangyayari now kay Lozada. Hindi sila tulad nila Erap nuon na Gestapo-style gaya ng ginawa nila kina Dacer.

Nakakaawa si Jun Lozada pero nakakabilib din. Sana madagdagan pa ang tulad nya. Masyado na kasi tayong kinalyo sa mga nagyayari kaya wala na tayong pakialam. De-sensitized ika nga.

**explorer** · August 29th, 2009 04:28 PM

from: www.inquirer.net

PICTURE of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo taken during a golf game at Shenzhen Golf Club in Shenzhen, China, on Nov. 2, 2006, which was followed by lunch with ZTE officials at ZTE headquarters.

[SIZE="4"]Neri ordered suspended[/SIZE]
Ombudsman ruling preempts Senate findings

By Michael Lim Ubac, Edson C. Tandoc Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:53:00 08/29/2009

MANILA, Philippines — Saying it could not close its eyes to his “misconduct,” the Office of the Ombudsman has directed the Office of the President to suspend Romulo Neri for at least six months for his role in the National Broadband Network deal with China’s ZTE Corp.

In an interview Friday with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, spokesperson and Assistant Ombudsman Jose de Jesus said a letter had already been sent to Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita endorsing the recommendations of the investigation panel to immediately suspend Neri, now the president of the Social Security System.

The Office of the Ombudsman cleared President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, of liability in the since scuttled $329-million deal. It recommended that graft charges be filed against Neri and Benjamin Abalos Sr., the then chair of the Commission on Elections. (For an extensive backgrounder on the issue, log on to http://www.inquirer.net/specialfeatu...deal/index.php) Neri was also found liable for administrative charges.

According to the Ombudsman, misconduct has the elements of “corruption, clear intent to violate the law, or flagrant disregard of established rules.”

Said the Ombudsman in its 51-page resolution: “There being substantial evidence in the administrative case against Romulo L. Neri, he is hereby found guilty of misconduct and is suspended without pay for six months. The Office of the President through the Executive Secretary is hereby directed to forthwith implement the penalty of suspension.”

Blue ribbon report

The Ombudsman’s ruling has effectively preempted the Senate blue ribbon’s committee report on the controversy, which was to be released next week.

The committee chair, Sen. Richard Gordon, said that per the findings, the First Couple and all the others cleared by the Ombudsman were not entirely off the hook.

“[The ruling] preempted the Senate because [the Ombudsman] recommended the criminal prosecution of certain people,” Gordon told the Inquirer on the phone.

“But we still have many recommendations,” he said.

Gordon and members of the committee secretariat met at the Senate Friday to determine whether one more hearing should be held on Sept. 1 to fill up information “gaps” in the report.

The senator had earlier said the report would be ready two days after the hearing.

Gordon agreed with the Ombudsman in recommending the criminal prosecution of Abalos and Neri, the director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) at the time of the NBN-ZTE controversy.

“They committed malfeasance, nonfeasance and misfeasance,” Gordon said. “Malfeasance because they committed a wrongdoing, nonfeasance because they failed to do [what is commanded by the law], and misfeasance because of the wrong handling of the [controversy].”

But Gordon was reluctant to comment on the purported liability of the President and her husband, saying he did not want to preempt the committee report.

Arroyo’s ‘responsibilities’

The Office of the Ombudsman cleared Ms Arroyo of charges that she violated the anti-graft law for refusing to punish violators of the act and for obstructing the apprehension and prosecution of criminal offenders.

It said Ms Arroyo was immune from suit, and that there was no evidence to pin down Mike Arroyo on similar graft charges for allegedly brokering the deal to digitally wire the nation’s bureaucracy.

Gordon agreed that the President had immunity from suit. But he said that while she could not be haled to court, she could be taken to task for failure to fulfill her “responsibilities” as chief enforcer of the laws of the land.

“To my mind, we will still discuss the limits of the liability. The Senate [inquiry] is in aid of legislation. But we can recommend the filing of charges or [ask concerned officials] to explain,” Gordon said.

“We will recommend whatever should be done,” he said.

Gordon also hinted that other charges could be filed against Abalos and Neri.

When asked if the blue ribbon committee could still lengthen the list of those liable for the deal, the senator said: “Our recommendations will show that.”

No categorical refusal

According to the Ombudsman, “Neri’s acts undoubtedly violate the norm of transparency and integrity or tend to diminish the people’s respect for those in government service.”

In 2007, Neri testified at a Senate inquiry that while they were playing golf, Abalos offered him a bribe of P200 million to favor ZTE for the NBN contract.

The Ombudsman noted that Neri did not categorically refuse the offer and “constantly conferred” with Abalos in lunches and golf games.

“Ignoring a bribe offer and saying no to it are completely different. Respondent Neri was expected to have said ‘no’ and flatly rejected the offer,” the Ombudsman said.

It added: “What reasons prompted Neri to constantly confer with the chairman of the Comelec when Neri knew clearly that Abalos had no duty or reason to be involved in the project?”

The Ombudsman ordered the filing of graft charges against Abalos for taking interest and intervening in a contract “completely alien to his duties,” as shown by his purported bribe offer of P200 million to Neri and a purported $10-million “back-off” offer to Jose de Venecia III, a losing bidder in the NBN project.

Ombudsman Gutierrez

Her office’s resolution of the NBN-ZTE controversy should augur well for Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, who is facing an impeachment case in the House.

“Technically, this may influence the votes at the proper time,” Speaker Prospero Nograles said in a text message. “That all depends on the members of the justice committee. It is best to just wait for the developments in the next two hearings.”

Nograles wants the impeachment case against Gutierrez wrapped up by mid-September to allow Congress to focus on legislative matters, specifically the 2010 budget.

But in another text message, Nueva Ecija Rep. Eduardo Nonato Joson said the NBN-ZTE case should have no bearing on the impeachment complaint.

“There is no impact because the ruling is not an anticorruption ruling. The masterminds got away. Any case can be resurrected, especially if you are an enemy at the gates of Malacañang.”

The House committee on justice is to hear Gutierrez’s defense on Sept. 2, or a week after a group led by former Senate President Jovito Salonga initiated the impeachment complaint.

The committee, led by Quezon City Rep. Matias Defensor, is dominated by Ms Arroyo’s allies and has junked three impeachment complaints against her for purported insufficiency in substance and form.

Gutierrez, a law classmate of Mike Arroyo, had inhibited herself from deliberating on the NBN-ZTE controversy.

Palawan Rep. Antonio Alvarez said that with the Ombudsman’s ruling, “it’s time for candidates for political office to back off from the issue and start using other ways of getting public attention than hitting a family which will be out of Malacañang in 10 months.”

Alvarez said that if critics of Mike Arroyo had been indicted for influence peddling, “then the charge sheet should include former Speaker and Pangasinan Rep. Jose de Venecia, his son [De Venecia III] and witness [Rodolfo] Jun Lozada.”

“The three tried to pull some strings, cut corners, called up some people, offered enticements, and wrote incriminating letters. So if you charge the First Gentleman, you charge everyone. And by the same standard, if you absolve one, you absolve all,” Alvarez said.

‘Suspicious’ ruling

In a statement, Sen. Mar Roxas said that “at the very least,” Mike Arroyo should have been included among those to be charged with graft.

“The decision of the Ombudsman is suspicious,” he said, adding that the “conspiracy between the Ombudsman’s office and Malacañang to spare the Arroyo couple remains apparent” despite Gutierrez’s inhibition from the case.

Roxas said Mike Arroyo was “equally guilty of graft when he brokered the NBN-ZTE deal.” He said “the First Gentleman clearly had no business brokering the project, and thus his unusual interest was uncalled for.”

The senator also questioned the timing of the release of the Ombudsman’s ruling: “Did they think that by releasing this report that Gutierrez will be absolved from the charges in the impeachment complaint? Of course not! She has to be held liable for betraying public trust by protecting the interests of Malacañang instead of the public, and the many other high-profile graft cases that she just chose to sit on.”

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**explorer** · August 29th, 2009 04:29 PM

continuation...

Facts of the case

Assistant Ombudsman De Jesus defended the resolution clearing the First Couple of liability over the NBN-ZTE deal, saying “the panel did not consider other things except the facts of the case, the evidence presented, and the law.”

De Jesus retired as assistant ombudsman in July. But Friday, when he faced the media, he said Ombudsman Gutierrez had rehired him to report directly to her office on a coterminous status.

He was the only Ombudsman official who spoke with reporters Friday. The rest became scarce after news of the resolution broke on Thursday night.

The Inquirer was told that Gutierrez had been sick since Tuesday and was not reporting to work. But De Jesus denied this.

Asked why the resolution took two years to be issued, De Jesus said the NBN-ZTE controversy was “a complex case,” and that “two years is not really long.”

He said at least seven cases had been filed, two of them administrative complaints, and these had to be consolidated.

The first complaint was filed in October 2007. The resolution was dated April 21, but Deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro approved it only on Aug. 27.

De Jesus also said the Ombudsman was to announce the resolution in a press conference Friday but that on Thursday night, the group of Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros, one of the complainants, immediately made public the copy of the resolution delivered to her office by the Ombudsman’s process server.

De Jesus also said the release of the resolution had no connection with the hearing on the impeachment complaint against Gutierrez.

“The impeachment complaint has a life of its own and does not distract us from our work,” he said.