Friday, February 15, 2008 Seares: Hero slash heel By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
PEOPLE who think Rodolfo Lozada Jr., witness in the ZTE national broadband scandal, is a hero are getting propaganda blitz that says he is a heel.
Full-page ads in national papers tell the public of his sins as wheeler-dealer and profiteer. Officials shamed by his testimony are returning fire.
Jun shrewdly doesn't deflect the smear going his way. Instead, he seizes it as reason to end his not being in a state of grace.
"I won't sell my soul," he said, the penitent pitch that bishops and priests love to hear from converted sinners.
On the level of myth and legend, Jun is no hero. He's no "man of great strength or courage favored by the gods and descended from them."
Faking the fear
Unless Jun was faking his fear, he was crying and cringing when he was freed of his abductors. If he was hamming it up, honesty, also basic in heroism, was missing. Which should knock down any makeshift pedestal for the guy.
Harassment in all guises and forms, Jun should anticipate. Assault to demonize him is standard weapon. Did he expect Palace boys to sit back and twiddle their thumbs?
Something close to heroism that Jun can do is taking the blows and fighting back. No crying, unless buckets of tears are his tools of selling.
Do people believe what he's saying? Some parts, but he still has to provide the kind of evidence that Clarissa Ocampo supplied and did Erap Estrada in. There's yet no direct and solid proof of the First Couple's roles in the mess.
Maybe, Cabinet secretary Romulo Neri can provide that, if he can muster the courage to squeal on his bosses.
Sometimes, one needs to be a heel to become a hero.
