ZTE-NBN deal: A Stinking Steak Dinner

Pardon if I write about my carnivorous self, but I just love a beef steak, medium rare. Its tender. It’s juicy. If you chew it, it’s like your average salty-flavored bubble gum.

Of course, a steak would not be complete without mash potatoes and some vegetable sidings.

And you know if you’re steak is as tender as the one you had the last time. Steak dinners should be perfect—one that would give you a big blurp in the end.

Ask Mrs. Arroyo and her husband—they had this fine steak when they dined at Le Cirque and went to Bobby Van’s steakhouse a day later. They know the difference between a French cooked steak and those of the greasy kind of American Bobby Van’s.

And apparently, this recent decision by the Office of the Ombusman to file graft charges against former Comelec chair Benjamin Abalos and ex-NEDA chief Romulo Neri can be likened to a steak eaten in some carinderia. They are being charged for the moth-balled ZTE-NBN deal. Yet if you looked closely, it seemed that the Office of the Ombusman did not cook this ZTE-NBN steak the way we know steaks are cooked.

This one is like some slab of meat put in the fire without those spices and steak sauces put into it. It’s bland.It’s tasteless. It’s immoral to eat it.

Imagine, only Abalos and Neri are being charged, showing how pitiful their states are and how lowly the power-that-be regard these comical creatures. Worst, they are being charged with just “circumstantial evidence”, an obvious way out for them in the end.

This is a poor steak sideshow, meant to appease perceived public outrage while clearing the main actors who conspired to muddle a very good telecomms deal.

It’s sending the message that the First Gentleman Mike Arroyo and his wife, Gloria Arroyo are not part of the dirty operation, despite photos of them visiting the ZTE-NBN headquarters and even played golf with ZTE officials. Of course, the Ombusman did not find anything wrong with how DOTC secretary Leandro Mendoza and his undersecretaries comforted themselves nor did the Office found anything wrong with the conduct of ZTE officials led by Yu Yong.

This decision is a stinking steak dinner.

First Gentleman stays behind while Gloria pays her last respects to Cory

First Gentleman Mike Arroyo is staying behind while his wife, Gloria flies back to Manila to attend President Cory Aquino’s wake. Malacanang offered no explanation why FG decided to stay behind.

According to some sources in the US, the First Gentleman daw will be giving his testimony in connection with the alleged money laundering charges filed against him by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Some monts back, news about the cases filed against FG circulated in coffee shops throughout the US and the Philippines. FG wanted to clear his name and see for himself the serious charge sheets, according to these sources. However, the FBI refused to validate or confirm this.

After this, FG will be visiting their properties in San Francisco California. The First Family’s properties, sources say, have encountered serious back taxes. The values of their real estate properties also went down. That’s why, FG has reportedly decided to divest these properties and use the money to buy more properties outside of the US. Reportedly, the First Family intends to retire in their luxurious villas in Portugal, instead of their initial plan to stay in the US to avoid possible prosecution from state authorities.