Tuesday, March 18, 2008 Cebuanos asked to help truth hunt
WORRIED that corruption has robbed Filipinos of their sense of hope, Senate witness Rodolfo Lozada Jr. urged Cebuanos present in yesterday’s forum at the University of San Carlos gym to help him “squeeze” the truth out of the National Broadband Network (NBN)-ZTE controversy.
“That is the negative effect I see with corruption, that the people are exhibiting hopelessness already. Even our moral leaders…send us messages of hopelessness and we buy them,” said Lozada.
Lozada arrived in Cebu yesterday morning for a series of activities and to share the lessons he gained since he testified in the Senate probe on the NBN-ZTE deal.
With the visit, Second District Rep. Pablo Garcia suggested that it would be better if Cebuanos would not give importance to Lozada’s campus tour and questioned his motive for doing it.
Like other Cebuano leaders, Garcia said Lozada had laid down all his cards during the Senate inquiry with full media coverage.
“So unsa pa may atong pangitaon?” he asked.
Before the forum, Lozada joined a unity walk from the university’s quadrangle to the gymnasium together with supporters and organizing groups, including representatives of two USC-based departments, the National Union of People’s Lawyers and the Community Empowerment Resource Network.
Reasons
Organizers expected to fill up the gymnasium, which has a capacity of 3,000 to 4,000 people, for the forum but only less than a thousand came, crowding the basketball court, with a few others in the bleachers.
Some of the factors the organizers blamed for the anemic attendance were the graduation schedules and final examinations of most students.
Among those seen in the forum were businessman Crisologo Saavedra and former Integrated Bar of the Philippines Cebu City chapter president Democrito Barcenas.
Despite a brief encounter with a man who described the forum as biased and the distribution of flyers questioning his integrity, Lozada was cheered by the crowd and was given a standing ovation.
“Kahit isa lang po, kahit itong NBN-ZTE scandal, tulungan ninyo kaming mapiga ang katotohanan,” he said.
Apart from challenging his detractors to join him onstage, Lozada urged the participants to question corrupt people they meet and help those who are doing something good.
He asked them to do the right thing because they will get something priceless in return.
“For my part, I got the genuine affection, trust, and respect of total strangers…What I’m doing here is never to seek the crowd. I just don’t want to join those people who are victimizing you,” he explained.
Other anomalies
Lozada cited other anomalies, including the purchase of the lampposts in time for the Asean Summit in January that, he said, Cebu is famous of.
But lawyer Poch Cinco, vice president of the National Union of People’s Lawyers-Visayas, said the NBN-ZTE issue concerns not only the people of Manila but also Cebuanos.
“Through this forum, we can ask Lozada questions for us to know the truth and act collectively on that truth,” he said.
Lozada’s legal counsel, lawyer Neri Colmenares, agreed, saying that Cebuanos also pay taxes that are usurped by corrupt public officials.
He said Cebuanos have a long tradition of courage to stand up against corruption.
USC’s Fr. Joseph Suson, SVD, asked lovers of the truth to listen and non-lovers of truth to be open to Lozada’s statements because “truth is not a monopoly of one but all men of good will.”
“Let us be prompted by love and compassion for the victims of corruption, especially those who are forced to commit sins. If we are moved by love, we will not stop fighting until there is still a victim of corruption,” Lozada said. (NRC)
