Bulatlat

Before the present rice crisis broke out, the multitudes of ordinary Filipinos had already been hard-up, with wages lying way below the costs of living. Their plight has worsened with the steep rise in prices of rice – the country’s staple food – and other food products, as well as that of oil, a prime commodity.

The Arroyo government insists that what the country is experiencing now is not a rice crisis, but merely a problem in rice prices. There are even recent studies showing that the present rice supply is slightly more than enough to feed the entire population.

The recent Supreme Court decision affirming the “right” of former National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA director-general and now Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chairman Romulo Neri to invoke executive privilege in refusing to answer questions regarding his conversations with President Arroyo on the government’s National Broadband Network (NBN) deal with China’s ZTE Corpo

As the Philippines’ Christian majority meets the onset of the Holy Week and goes into another period of prolonged reflection on the sufferings of Jesus Christ, it is also worth pondering on the fact that the Filipino people are agonizing in their own Calvary.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo may make much of the recent revocations of Executive Order No. 464, which barred cabinet-level officials and top-ranking military officers from testifying in congressional investigations in aid of legislation without clearance from the President; and its implementing guidelines contained in Memorandum Circular No. 108.

While calling on the Catholic faithful, the biggest religious bloc in the Philippines, to destroy “the roots of corruption,” the recent statement by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) urged President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo – whose administration is the single biggest wellspring of corruption in the country today – “to take the lead in combating corruption wherever

The Arroyo administration seems bent on trying every trick in the bag just to undermine Engr. Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada, star witness at the Senate investigations on the controversial National Broadband Network project. First he was sent off to Hong Kong just as he was set to appear before the Senate, then he was abducted upon his return to the Philippines.

If politics were a game, perhaps “Truth and Consequence” would be its name. The ouster of Rep. Jose de Venecia, Jr. as House Speaker clearly shows that he is not anymore on the “good side” of the powers-that-be. His replacement by known Malacañang ally Rep.

The recent reopening of the Senate investigations on the controversial National Broadband Network (NBN) deal the Philippine government and China’s ZTE Corp. came to nothing after two vital witnesses, former National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) director-general Romulo Neri and his alleged technical consultant Engr. Rodolfo Lozada, both failed to show up.