Left Flank

Attempting to follow the constitutional struggles between RP President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the Senate, and the Supreme Court is like witnessing a family feud where no one can recall the genesis of the dispute, but everyone is certain their escalating barbarity will keep the family together.

The Senate rejected Wednesday a Supreme Court proposal which, while allowing former Socioeconomic and Planning Secretary Romulo Neri to testify at the upper chamber's broadband investigation, barred senators from asking questions involving Neri's conversation with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

After the caucus among the senators, which lasted a couple of hours, Senate President Manuel Villar said most senators believed that the proposal would diminish the powers of the Senate to call any witness or resource person to an inquiry, or to ask certain questions.

«We strongly feel about this…We are doing this not only for us but for future senators,» he said in Filipino.

Villar said: «We cannot agree to a compromise. We reached a consensus to reject the offer. I am really against that because it would show the Senate has no balls, we don't want to look like we're being trampled on.»

As much as I respect Manuel L. Quezon III's opinion on the NBN-ZTE scandal, it seems other Filipino voices have lost faith in the "family", the government, and also have lost faith in their role to exert extra-constitutional pressure on the government through the hackneyed device of a popular revolt. Lest I sound like the NDF, let's take some radical thoughts to heart:

Clearly there is nothing wrong with the Filipino. What is wrong is this nebulous, amorphous "system." I hadn't thought of it before, and previously it had no name. The system is our public life - how we behave in public spaces. What I meant by "civilising" Philippine politics is the creation of civility in our society - the lack of this feeling that we need to eat or be eaten. That we can let go of our guard and live relatively safe lives in public because we have trust that public institutions will work for (more or less) the majority. Isn't this what we mean by justice?

Seriously, I find a lot that's notable in Benjamin de la Pena's Design of Our Democracy and these critical comments.

This revision of the Micro-ocracy proposal (which I shall now call the Micro-Federal Democratic System), seeks to alleviate the following problems: eliminate the Manila monopoly, as since the Congressional vote is province-wise, and the Manila area is one province, it is only the national government capital, but not the economic and social one; avoid a «Serbian mistake», by making sure that no one region or ethnic group has the majority in provincial council vote. Incidentally, AHYH made sure that the «one-man autocracies» would diminish, as the one-man offices are taken from Councils: district, provincial, and then Congressional. Most importantly, no one faction has power. Not the media oligopolies, or the election barons. The elite would be regionally limited. And because, hopefully, secessionist and ideological rebellions would finally be discouraged by giving them a piece of government, military spending would decrease, and the budget would focus on better things, like education, and alternative fuel research, and medicine.

Again, this is just another proposal, coming from one proposal. I am encouraging criticism from various sectors, and their own offers of revisions. In this way, through constructive argument, and the sharing of opinions, we would finally be able to get to a working manual, something that we can thrust on the oligarchs and their elected monarchy and say—this is what it's all about. Not personalities, and not parties. A real, substantial, structural reform, different from the American, different from the Marxist. One that is a balance of the two. And, hopefully, one that works.

But, beware the Philippine version of the politics of "The Wire".

Rina bravely admits to a praiseworthy perplexity and skepticism about the constitutional fracas occurring around the NBN-ZTE scandal in The Philippines. I'll join her in that predicament, and, as a non-Filipino, I think I need more help than she does.

ZTE Corp. issued a statement denying allegations by witnesses testifying in a Philippine Senate anti-corruption hearing that a former elections chief and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's husband were promised huge commissions to clear a national broadband contract with the Chinese company.

Both men have denied the accusations, and the deal was scrapped last year. But the scandal and nationally televised hearings have continued, threatening Arroyo's administration with fresh opposition protests and coup rumors.

(…)

Last year, a Filipino businessman who lost to ZTE the bid for the project to link online all government offices told senators the US$330 million (€225 million) ZTE proposal was overpriced by US$130 million (€89 million) to accommodate kickbacks demanded by ex-elections commissioner Benjamin Abalos and the president's husband, Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo.

Former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri testified that Abalos offered him a bribe to approve the ZTE proposal, which he refused. Neri stopped short of linking Arroyo or her husband to the scandal.

Last week, Neri's former consultant, Rodolfo Lozada Jr., surfaced in the Senate after claiming he was held for two days by government agents to prevent him from speaking.

He said he discussed the deal with ZTE officials but failed to "moderate the greed" of brokers like Abalos, who last year quit as the elections chief. He also claimed Abalos threatened to kill him if he did not secure a kickback for him.

Obviously, ZTE, and the PRC government, will plead its innocence, and make threatening noises about not spoiling the business environment.

The problem is, that business and constitutional issues are intertwined. On the one hand, there's what actually might have happened between Chinese and Filipino businessmen and the two governments related to broadband companies. But then, because the scandal snared congressional figures, there's the constitutional relationship between Congress and the president. There's also President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's lack of popularity, which doesn't stop her from fighting.

President Arroyo spoke yesterday for the first time about the NBN issue after Lozada's explosive Senate testimony, saying she trusts the impartiality of the Ombudsman in its probe.

«We want to fight corruption.  The Ombudsman, who is constitutionally independent, has announced that she will carry out a review of this issue and the related allegations,» Mrs. Arroyo said in her speech at an economic briefing jointly organized by the Investor Relations Office, the Manila Overseas Press Club, and the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines. Lozada told the Senate last week that her husband and Abalos demanded kickbacks from the ZTE deal.

«We take the ZTE issue very seriously,» Mrs. Arroyo said adding that she «moved quickly to cancel the project as soon as I could after proper consultation with government of China, our biggest export market.»

She said she has instructed Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez to investigate the others implicated in the deal who are not within the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman. «We do not tolerate corruption,» she said.

«I trust that the Ombudsman will investigate this issue thoroughly and that she will ensure a transparent process in doing so.  I instruct the Secretary of Justice to likewise be thorough and transparent in his investigation,» Mrs. Arroyo said.

The President noted that allegations of corruption «have regularly emerged even in previous administrations as part of our less-than-impressive political culture.»

«I just hope this set of charges will not be a political football,» Mrs. Arroyo said. She said there's no way she could eliminate the «legacy of political corruption» overnight but stressed her administration has achieved great strides in its battle against well-entrenched grafters.

She said fighting corruption is one her administration's major goals.

Even if the NBN-ZTE scandal is like Watergate, Rina, just keep repeating, "Bring It On!" (So, for Rina, a little musical relaxation—more available, but it's in Tagalog)

Devon Stewart and Joshua Kurlantzick at BHTV take a little time to mention the subject of Chinese investment in the Philippines IT sector.

In the ongoing series of articles investigating the National Broadband Network (NBN) project, the latest fireworks in Manila come from Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago (which is one of the best names I've ever heard):

An embarrassed Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago Thursday apologized for saying that China «invented corruption» during a heated hearing on the allegedly overpriced National Broadband Network (NBN) project that the Philippine government signed with a Chinese company.

«I will write a formal letter of apology to the Chinese ambassador,» Santiago, head of the Senate foreign relations committee and a close ally of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, told reporters.

Santiago, famous for her mercurial temper, berated China in Wednesday's nationally televised hearing on the $329-million NBN project that was awarded to China?s Zhong Xing Telecommunication Equipment (ZTE) Corp. amid allegations of bribery and overpricing.

Former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri and businessman Jose «Joey» de Venecia III, whose company lost the NBN contract, testified that they were offered bribes by Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos to clear ZTE for the contract, which has since been suspended.

Abalos denied the allegations but admitted that ZTE officials were his «golfing buddies» and had paid for his trips to China.

«China invented civilization in the East, but as well it invented corruption for all of human civilization,» Santiago said during the hearing.

She also admonished witnesses at the hearing for «just fighting over your kickbacks.»

That's just the beginning of good quotes in the article, and each a compelling argument. Yes, it does happen once in a while. Politicians and other public figures do achieve some sort of vocal competence, but it's probably just good staffwork.

The Chinese Embassy gives as good as it gets.

«We believe that the Philippine government and the people of the Philippines will not agree to that. It is known to all that anticorruption is a common task faced by all the countries of the world. Corruption exists not only in China, nor was it created by China,» the embassy said.

«The Chinese government has all along devoted itself to the building of an honest and clean government and combat against all forms of corruption,» the statement said.

«In recent years, the Chinese government has adopted even tougher measures in combat against corruption and achieved prominent results. [We] think people of insight can all see it.»

Aside from the philosophical issues, I think this is why China will always at least stymie the force of international opprobrium against it. It's just a savvy rejoinder. Not only does China have a line to sling, which in someways rivals western universalism (whatever you or I think about that), but it does it such a polite manner. None of the Toxic Texan Two-Step's bravado or the Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Inc's sarcasm.

Finally, for sheer straightforwardness, there's Senator Manuel Roxas II:

«The problem is not China. The problem is that Philippine officials, every time they enter into a deal with China, they use that as an excuse to bypass the regular procurement laws which require bidding. That's the problem, it's not our transactions with China...»

Concerning the particulars of the NBN deal (via The Daily Dose), I'm reticent to comment. I find Philippine politics exhilarating, like a rat on methamphetamines, but the details are a bit blurry still. But, if i have to commit, why reinvent the wheel. especially if it costs more the second time?

But, the two above-mentioned quotes from Defensor-Santiago and Roxas II are worth a really good thunk.