Ducky Paredes

Malaya (02.28.08)

 

“(T)he Chinese government does not tolerate corruption, it executes corrupt Chinese officials! ”

 

 

by Ducky Paredes

 

We have a letter that correctly points out just exactly what is wrong with the latest “I am sorry” statement of the President. She did her first “I am sorry” statement in 2004 after the tapes were discovered of what were allegedly her conversations with “Garci”, then a Commission on Elections commissioner on how she expected “Garci” to help her cheat Fernando Poe. Jr. from his victory in the presidential elections.

Her second “I am sorry” statement is on the ZTE broadband contract, something that this country never really needed and which will just be another white elephant if it had pushed through.

Here is the letter:

“On President GMA’s belated admission that she was informed of irregularities in the ZTE-NBN deal on the eve of its contract signing, yet she did not stop it for fear of straining our good relations with China–her lame excuse simply does not wash.

“On the contrary, had she denounced before the Chinese government the bribe-giving ZTE officials who were in complicity with equally corrupt Filipino officials, she could have earned ‘pogi’ points from China–because the Chinese government does not tolerate corruption, it executes corrupt Chinese officials!

“As reported by international media and posted to the Internet , two Chinese officials convicted for corruption–one for receiving bribes exceeding $475,000–were executed in year 2000, while another one, convicted for taking $850,000 in bribes, was executed in middle of last year .

“As things stand, if China has not similarly executed the source of shame to it before the international community–the corrupt ZTE officials who appeared part of a complicity in corruption at the expense of the friendly Philippine government–in a loan transaction involving bribes more than a hundred times bigger than those that called for execution of corrupt Chinese officials in the past, that is understandable because President GMA, even if already aware of the corruption in the ZTE/NBN deal, has failed to inform the Chinese government about it.

“Moreover, even without any legal and diplomatic constraints in the prosecution of Filipinos who apparently received bribes, why didn’t she swiftly act against them? Up to now, she has not reported to the nation the complete detail of the corruption and the names of Filipino participants in it.

“As a result, with the President’s utter lack of action against whoever are the corrupt Filipino officials, as well as her almost half-year delay in the suspension of the ZTE contract–which had to be aborted anyway because of a Supreme Court decision against it–she cannot blame the people if many of them would suspect now that, by personally attending the contract signing in China instead of stopping it as clearly called for under the situation, she knowingly allowed and even witnessed the first step in the commission of a major crime, in the form of staggering corruption in the ZTE/NBN deal that qualifies as plunder under the law, and that, in effect, she condoned–or, worse, enabled―the attendant ZTE bribe-giving to prominent Filipino personalities.

“Understandably, ZTE officials would not give the bribes in full for as long as there was no signed contract, therefore the President’s tolerating the signing of the contract right in her presence seems to have made possible ZTE’s media-reported bribe-giving to certain Filipinos.” — Marcelo L. Tecson

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What can I tell you, Marcelo. She is a leader who does not want to talk to the Senate (although she was a senator before she was President) and who does not like being asked pointed questions about what her government is doing. One has a right to expect, one would think, that someone like that would have a pat and reasonable story of what her government is doing whenever the time comes for her to explain.

Instead, as you point out, she offers lame excuses. Remember this: On the day she went to China to witness the contract-signing with ZTE, the love of her life — her First Gentleman — was in the Intensive Care Unit of St. Luke’s Hospital hovering between life and death. Yet, she apparently convince herself that she had to go to China for the contract signing, even as she now tells us that she already knew then that there was, as Marcellus says in Hamlet: “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”

So, if that was the case and she already knew, why, in Heaven’s name, did she feel that she had to leave the love of your life in the ICU just to witness the signing in China and to meet with the apparently rotten Chinese?

I am sure, Marcelo, that, like me, you have no acceptable explanation.

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Valley Golf and Country Club is promoting to the limit its 9th Don Celso Tuazon Cup which coincides with the 50th year of the golf club. Don Celso was one of he founders of Valley and his family has been generous enough to lend his name and their support to a tournament in Don Celso’s honor. Don Celso truly loved Valley and is even memorialized with a plaque on the South Golf Course.

This is from Pete Maniego of the Don Celso Tuazon Cup committee:

“I’ll appreciate it very much if you can promote the 9th DCT Cup in your column. It’s Valley’s 50th Anniversary or Golden Jubilee and we hope that this year’s tournament will be something special.

“Our giveaways consist of commemorative items with Valley’s golden jubilee logo such as trolley locker bag, rain jacket, golf shirt, golf cap, golf umbrella and golf bag cover. We estimate the retail value of these items to be more than P5,000 per member & guest or a total of around P10,000 for both. This is more than the P4,000 per member & guest or P8,000 per team registration fee. Moreover, there are practice coupons for the south & executive courses plus two playing days. We have fabulous hole-in-one and raffle prizes at stake like in previous years.”

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If you are a Valley member and you have not yet joined, what are you waiting for? If you are not a Valley member but have a Valley member among your close friends, get him to join with you as a partner. This tournament is worth joining; no doubt about that!

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hvp (02.27.08)

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