Wednesday, February 27, 2008 Priest: Neri a big disappointment By Carlo P. Mallo
JESUIT priest Albert Alejo said in an interview recently that former economic development secretary Romulo Neri has been a very big disappointment for the people and that he has lost his opportunity to shed light on the controversy hounding the $329 million ZTE-National Broadband Network (NBN) project.
"He promised a bombshell, but what he gave was only a whimper," Alejo said.
Alejo, who is the founder of the "Ehem!" campaign, an anti-graft and corruption advocacy, also said the claims of some allies of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that the ZTE controversy is only confined to Metro Manila is not true.
"The entire country is affected by that scandal," Alejo said.
The anomalies hounding the multi-million dollar ZTE project was revived after Rodolfo "Jun" Lozada Jr. testified before the Senate following his alleged abduction by some members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP).
Lozada claimed and implicated First Gentleman Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo, then Commission on Elections (Comelec) chair Benjamin Abalos, and other allies of the President into receiving kickbacks of about $160 million from the project.
Alejo, together with other civic group leaders and members of the civil society, spearheaded a series of mass protests in the city calling on the government to reveal the truth behind the controversial multi-million dollar project.
