Would the NBN be dangerous?

My! That must be a very wealthy, or very well-funded group that could afford to have those one-page advertisements in all the major national daily newspapers yesterday. Maybe the same ads, or others with similar contents, will also appear in the same publications today. The ad which carried a blurry, darkened picture of whistleblower Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada, is titled: Issues we need to raise before Rodolfo Noel “Jun” Lozada is declared a “hero”.

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And the entire page enumerates what the advertisers claim to be the reasons why people who sympathize, pray for, and want to protect Jun Lozada are all wrong, that they have all been taken for a ride, as the fellow had been by his welcomers at the Cathay Pacific tube when he returned from Hongkong. More and more of this kind of advertisement can be expected, with the reports that even Lozada's office has already been raided by agents (NBI?) who took out some documents. Lozada has reason to express fears that some of those documents may be tampered with, electronically, and converted to evidences against him. I'm afraid his fears are justified.

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Now dozens of complaints, affidavits, documents are being produced against Lozada who, at the start, had rather jokingly said that he is even expecting to be hit with the kitchen sink. It could be more than that, dear boy, the ones who are readying charges against you are all fully equipped with the ammunition, and what do you have? Your friend Neri, who started all this by telling people that then Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos offered him P200 million, is not even inclined to talk at the Senate. You might get to that day when you will find yourself all alone and wondering why you are the only one guilty.

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The advertisement, by the way carries the name of the “Kongeso ng Mamamayan Central Luzon-National Capital Region-Southern Tagalog Chapters”. At first glance I thought it was the Kongress ng Mga Mayaman”. And they do seem to be very rich, don't they? Those ads must all cost about P1 million a day. Few organizations have that kind of money. Maybe if they have financiers who can grow them on trees.

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Is it true that there is more than just the allegations that the NBN-ZTE deal was graft and corruption-ridden that has blown the issue up to the proportions that it had reached? Some people, who, I admit, have wider-reaching imagination than I have, claim that it is not only China and the Philippines involved in this, that there is another country, a world power, you might say, who is displeased with the idea of the Philippines entering into such a sensitive and potentially dangerous contract with China.

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This, they say, is because a broadband system would open us to a very delicate situation where another country, specifically the one that installs the system here, could become privy to everything that is going on here as far as communication is concerned. Goodness gracious! Will that mean that our very secrets may be accessible, easily tapped of you will, by the technocrats of another country? Maybe the people holding on to this speculation have read or seen too many science-fiction books or movies. But, is it possible? As for this so-called world power, if you already get the drift, they must be thinking that if others will be able to pick our brains, it might as well be they. Is that such a silly idea?

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Poor Manny Pacquiao. He was reportedly distracted from his training the other day because of the discovery that he had been swindled of some $180,000 by the wife of his driver in Los Angeles . The trusting Pacman had almost forgotten that he had deposited some $200,000 in that L.A. bank, but his domestic helper had not, and managed to forge his signature and withdraw that much. This is not the first time Manny had been victimized by people he trusted, but he has such a kind and forgiving heart. Fortunately, his wife, Jinky, is not such a softie. She has told the media that she is determined to see the thieves in jail. Imagine how many more carats in diamonds that amount would have gotten her.*

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