ZTE-NBN scandal whistleblower Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada says he has paid the price for telling the Filipino people what they already know “and yet do not want to be told.”

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr.
(PDP-Laban) today warned Malacañang against a
government plan to allow China’ ZTE Corp. to operate a
mining concession in the gold-rich Mount Diwalwal in
Mindanao.
Pimentel said the reported impending entry of ZTE as a
major player in the Mount Diwalwal gold rush area has
caused restiveness among the various stakeholders,
there particularly the small scale [...]

PinoyPress Blogs: Make no mistake about it: politics is the only reason Lozada is still alive. If he’s murdered or harmed at this point, it would be a political disaster for Arroyo. And she needs that disaster like a hole in the head.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Q. Pimentel,
Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said “it may be difficult but
not impossible” to convince the Supreme Court to
reverse its ruling on the Neri case which he branded
as a “grave mistake.”
Pimentel said the high court’s ruling on the case was
based on a number of erroneous premises as he
expressed the hope that the [...]

Joey files writ of habeas data vs AFP, PNP, Abalos, JPE

Businessman Joey de Venecia III today filed a petition for writ of
habeas data before the Supreme Court to unearth all activities by the
military, the police, former Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. and
Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile to illegally wiretap his phone conversations.
In his petition, Joey also [...]

We are greatly disappointed with the Supreme Court decision upholding executive privilege in the testimony of ChEd chair Romulo Neri.
The sheer number of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s appointees in the High Court has no doubt influenced this troubling decision. From attempting to kidnap witness Jun Lozada to packing the High Court with appointees based on loyalty [...]

The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) is utterly disappointed with the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the principle of executive privilege in relation to Romulo Neri’s conversations with the president on the bribe-tainted NBN-ZTE deal.
The SC decision favors the stonewalling tactics of the Arroyo regime and deprives the public a measure of transparency and accountability in government.
We [...]

The Black and White Movement on Cardinal Vidal: “There is a difference between critical collaboration, which allows prelates to receive state funds while preaching political moderation from the pulpit, and being a puppet of the president.”

Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Q. Pimentel, Jr.
(PDP-Laban) today said the piles of testimonial and
documentary evidence on the anomalous national
broadband network-ZTE project that have surfaced in
the series of Senate hearings belie Malacañang’s claim
that the Senate has mishandled the inquiry on the
case.
Pimentel advised Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye not to
play deaf and blind to such ample evidence in [...]

Joey de Venecia III, the first whistleblower in the ZTE scandal, regrets that his father, former House speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., had to pay a steep political price for his exposé. “Maybe it was his salvation,” Joey says of his father’ ouster as House speaker. But, Joey says, their relationship has never been better.

Bringing the issue to the Courts is a legal trap

The NUPL condemns Pres. Gloria Arroyo’s use of legal institutions and processes to mislead the people and suppress the truth behind charges of corruption behind the NBN-ZTE contract and harass those who are oppose to this suppression of the truth. The belated [...]

NEWS ANALYSIS The “critical mass” that can lead to the resignation of President Arroyo can only rise from the diverse groups and personalities agreeing who or what will replace the widely discredited president.

Did the Philippines surrender to China its claim over the Spratlys islands? Such a surrender, the suspicion goes, is seen as the reason why Beijing is showering Manila with billions of loans, several of which are hounded by allegations of corruption.

Ibon said that anomalous infrastructure projects, such as the national broadband network (NBN) funded by Chinese loans and is now under Senate inquiry, is an example of how the country’s foreign aid system is easily subverted by political influence-peddling.

“We are former senior government officials who have served the government in the administrations of Presidents Marcos, Aquino, Ramos, Estrada and Arroyo. Today we see how the institutions of government are being manipulated, weakened, and corrupted.”

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Q. Pimentel,
Jr. (PDP-Laban) today dared President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo to stop preventing Secretary Romulo
Neri from testifying anew at the Senate inquiry into
the national broadband controversy and heed the call
of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines
for transparency to curb graft in government.
Pimentel said Neri’s continued refusal to return to
the Senate to complete [...]

Two former presidents – Corazon Aquino, who led the first People Power in 1986, and Joseph Estrada, who was ousted in the second People Power in 2001 – joined priests, nuns, farmers, activists and students in a march in Makati City.

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) today expressed confidence that the Makati mobilization will send a very strong message to Malacañang and other institutions of the government that the Filipino people seriously and urgently demand for truth, justice, and meaningful changes in the leadership and system of governance amid the latest political crisis that has been rocking the Arroyo regime.

Says it will not derail the people’s growing struggle to make Arroyo accountable for her lies and crimes
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) described today as “absurd” and “misleading” the call of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) for Ms. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to “take the lead in combating corruption”.
The multisectoral alliance said that while it [...]

Taking off their lab coats and glasswares, activist scientists are
today joining the mobilizations calling for the ouster of President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Scientists and engineers from AGHAM or the Samahan ng Nagtataguyod ng
Agham at Teknolohiya para sa Sambayanan and the broad coalition
Scientists for Truth, Scientists for Change (STSC) will be bringing
protest flasks to the mobilization commemorating the [...]