Ang daya niyo!

SINCE the election fever started to simmer, not a few holier-than-thou crusaders for electoral reforms started to surface. Media establishments are no exception to the pretentions of insuring reforms in the electoral process.

Politicians mouth the same motherhood statement. "Put a stop to premature campaigning", says some senatorial bets. "Join our crusade for clean elections", a huge television network challenges, "down with political dynasty", an unknown senatorial bet cries.

These are among the many political subterfuge that politicians themselves conjure. Mind you the characters present themselves to us as crusaders for reforms.

But look at what are taking place in every medium of propaganda. We see senatorial bets unabashedly outdoing each other in every turn. A lady senatorial bet who presents herself to be a social reformist is all over the country, present in nearly all important gatherings.

She pretends to be poor and yet she has all the money for all the TV commercials with her signature bandana. Not to be outdone, another newbie even had her life story featured in an effort to drive in doubting minds that she is the daughter of a popular movie hero. Still some senatorial bets both from the Liberal party and UNA have the gall to appear on TV ads as product endorsers.

I have this from another senatorial bet who looks like Loren Legarda, who always tops political surveys. She said she decided to forego with TV commercials when she realized that one TV spot can actually build 12 to 15 houses for the homeless victims of Typhoon Pablo. Now imagine how many houses can a candidate with so many exposures on TV build if she just stop indulging on projecting herself on television on the lame excuse that the election ban is not enforced yet?

The pretensions and bare-face claims of moral and ethical values are simply nauseating. Candidates in dire need of credentials would even go the extent of claiming that they are international awardees! My foot! The award bodies from Quiapo Market in Manila had obviously materialized. And when it does you know that it is election time.

An unknown senatorial bet launched a crusade against political dynasty. It was bannered "Andayamo". Because it was something novel, the media gobbled it and it merits front-page treatment. The character behind the movement, a certain Ricardo Penson, thought he was popular enough he decided to run for the senate!

Penson reminds me of Jun Lozada, the principal player not only in Wack Wack golfing elite but of the botched ZTE multi-million-dollar deal. Lozada of course was the fair-haired boy of Sec. Romulo Neri of Neda.

Buried in the catacomb of forgetfulness (as the late Atty. Jess Zozobrado would say) is the fact that Jun Lozada is the same Rodolfo Noel I. Lozada Jr. who, previous to his detail as consultant of NEDA courtesy of golfing buddy Neri, was President of Forest Development Corporation. FDC was the agency supposed to spearhead the Arroyo government Jatropha development program.

Lozada ran afoul with the law when he awarded contracts to his own family members during his stay at FDC. In an attempt to put the lid on the scandal, Neri took him in as consultant for after all Lozada is said to be an electronic and communications engineer. Now you see why and how Jun Lozada was involved in the ZTE mess. Before he spelled the beans on those involved in the ZTE negotiation, Lozada, Joey de Venecia, Neri, Comelec Chairman Ben Abalos and then FG Mike Arroyo were all together hatching up plans involving ZTE deal in the greens of Wack Wack Golf Club.

The group turned against each other also at the golf club because there was no meeting of minds on how the loot was to be divided. Jun Lozada, as we read later flew to Hong Kong but returned to the country.

Contrary to his claim that he was kidnapped, video footages in fact showed that he came home just like any VIPs of the Arroyo admin. From the airport, he drove around town talking constantly by cellphone to some people, ate in posh restaurants and dined with his "abductors".

The Lozada episode did not end there. He later ended in a religious quarter an surrounded by nuns and priests, came out on television complete with a disguise of camesa chino and unshaven face, revealed that he eluded his kidnappers and say that it is his patriotic duty to reveal what he knew about ZTE scam.

From that single moment of stardom, Jun Lozada was known as "Whistle Blower". Oh boy, how he can cry on TV. He ceased to be the main player in the deal, he became the hero of the gullible nuns and some impressionable youths. He went about the country courtesy of the enemies of the Arroyo regime to talk about his heroics!.

But the "Daang Matuwid" of the Aquino government obviously is not convinced by his dramatics. The pieces of evidence against his tenure as President of Forest Development are just too voluminous to be ignored. Never mind his participation in the ZTE scandal. A warrant of Arrest had been issued against him but he docked it and sought refuge against in the habits of the nuns. This time he again cried before the media. To justify why he eludes the law, he claims that there are armed men running after him.

Lozada cannot do another refrain. The tale of his kidnapping and now of armed men are ghost stories. I do not think that the Aquino government will believe that. Otherwise the "daang matuwid" will just be another fairy tale. Which is not...

Penson of Andayamo is just another Lozada, trying to indulge the media to get free space and sympathy to attain their personal goal and ambition. Ang daya niyo!