OFFBEAT MAIL

Millions of Filipinos are on the sideline, waiting for the outcome of the five demands that former senior government officials asked President Arroyo to do. And perhaps, this is a lithmus test that will, once and for all, show the present administration's sincerity in dealing with the present challenges that lurk behind her embattled leadership. Perhaps, what the president can do is just to make an announcement right now that she is willing to scrap Executive Order 464, which was misconstrued by the civil society groups as an armor to shield the government's image from being eroded further. With all these shanigans in government under close public scrutiny, there is no doubt that the people themselves will be fuming with anger in secrecy. This is dangerous in the sense that when the people's sentiments can no longer be contained, that's the end of it all. Well, the only thing that needs to be tested is the sincerity of the military and the police. For how long their pat...

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has strongly urged President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to scrap Executive Order 464, or else it will be forced to declare to the people that the present administration is tolerating the incidence of rampant graft and corruption in the government. In a statement issued by the CBCP, it insisted that the present administration's unclear stance on the issuance of Executive Order No. 464, which bars government officials, including military and police officers, from testifying before public hearings called by Congress, could be misconstrued by the people as another way of protecting rampant illegal transactions involving top government officials. The civil society groups have shared the view of the CBCP that the continuous reluctance of President Arroyo to cancel EO 464 is meant to mussle the mouths of public officials who may have been privy or knowledgeable to some of graft and corrupt practices under the present administration. T...

In trying to destroy his credibility, ZTE key witness Jun Lozada is now linked by media to a certain mistress by the name of Marissa, a former employee of Alcatel in the Philippines. At the height of his series of speaking sorties metro-wide, Lozada just shrugged off the controversy and instead insisted that these things are meant to discredit him. When asked in an ambush interview, Lozada admitted that he knew the woman being linked to him but he didn't elaborate further on the matter. However, he continued to parry questions that he believed would pin him down on the issue. He said that he still loved his family and that his attention now is focused behind the anomalous broadband deal entered by the Philippine government with China. Lozada paid a short visit inside the Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Sta. Mesa Thursday, where he was met by thousands of students who skipped their classes and threw confettis from atop the buildings around the PUP campus to grace his vi...

Local government officials and other politicians in the Philippines have fungus faces. Many of them have also sold their principles and dignity to the great Lucifer. I'm referring to those who were called lately to attend an emergency briefing in Malacanang, presided by no less than the embattled President Arroyo herself. Reports said one of the agenda was to review the development needs of the constituents in the countrysides, a move many analysts considered as a means to shore up the image of the administration in light of the anomalous NBN-ZTE scandal and the alleged kidnapping of the Rodolfo Lozada Jr., the key witness in the ZTE deal. From the way it looked, the efforts of the disheartened people whose eagerness to oust the president, like what they did in Pakistan, had been in vain. Let alone, the callousness of the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) whose members were suspected of having feasted on the donations given by unscrupulous government officials ju...

Government media agencies have continued to lag behind in so far as dissemination of information to the public is concerned. Unexpectedly, they have not been doing what they are supposed to do as mandated in their assigned tasks and responsibilities. If they had, these were not commensurate to public expectations. Currently, the Office of the Press Secretary maintains the Philippines News Agency (PNA), under the News and Information Bureau; the Philippines Information Agency (PIA), People's Television 4, Channel 9 and 13, Radio ng Bayan and so on. This is not to mention the existence of the Presidential News Desk (PND) and the Presidential Press Monitoring Division. What is so funny about these government media entities? Well, the answer lies in the way bureaucracy is slowly creeping into the systems and tasks that they are supposed to undertake. In most instances, everything is controlled in these media agencies. All reports--both written and for broadcast purposes--have to be cle...

After a weeklong brouhaha on the ZTE-NBN scandal, where Rodolfo "Jun" Lozada was made an instant celebrity, nothing much had transpired but the usual pockets of rallies, the biggest of which was the one held at the Makati City commercial district where an estimated crowd of at least 10,000 people attended. Some concerned people have commented that unless some elements in the military and the police will lend support to the efforts being made by the ralliests, the true spirit of another People Power will just fissle out. From the point of view of the experts, the move to oust President Arroyo will only prosper if the Catholic Church and other religious groups like the El Shaddai and the Jesus Is Lord Movement (JIL), who have at least 10 million members nationwide, will come together to heed the call of other civil society groups to join them. But the expectations that JIL leader Bro. Eddie Villanueva would allow his millions of members to hit the streets on the anniversary of ...

I'm not in favor of what Israel had done to impose total blockade against Gaza Strip. But I'm not in favor either of what the Hamas Group is doing by ignoring the repeated calls of Israel to stop sending rockets to its territories. If the Hamas militants do not stop their threats against Israel, there is no reason for them to call Israel's blockade as "immoral and inhuman." I don't think that what the Hamas militants are doing right now against Israel can be considered an act of gratitude for allowing the Palestinians to come and go in Israel' territory. The present scenario that is taking place in that part of the Middle East can be compared to a neighborhood where the lawless elements in a neighbor's house should be ignored even if they are harming or killing innocent people inside the community. And I think that there are members of Hamas who are intelligent enough to understand the situation at the moment. As the saying goes: "Beggars cannot b...