PIA Press Release
2008/02/21
Commentary: What is the truth, Mr. Lozada?
By Bong Pedalino
Tacloban City (21 February) -- Some sectors of civil society particularly in and around the nation's capital have criticized the Catholic Bishops for issuing what for them is a "weak" call for action as an aftermath to the scuttled NBN-ZTE deal.
They -- the critics, mostly -- had wanted a more forceful and decisive statement, and so they were disappointed when the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) issued a measured message instead, which can be interpreted either way.
The burden of taking a drastic action, actually, rests with the detractors, not with the Bishops; but of course, all the noises out there will just be like cymbals clinging without the moral compass supplied by the men of the cloth.
But the Bishops are right -- they will not allow even their shadows to be used. They are also right in their reading of the times: the unfolding events are not a cause for warm bodies to converge, simply because there are still many pieces of the puzzle that are lacking, in order to satisfy a question first popularized by Pontious Pilate -- What is truth?
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And so, while a Senate Committee is holding everyone's breath in suspended animation with yet another promise of a know-it-all witness, allow me to reprint here a series of questions addressed to -- who else? -- Lozada himself.
These questions were texted from a highly reliable and trusted source, and I quote everything here with permission and in toto:
Magkanong patriotic fund binayad ni Jamby sa iyo para ka magsinungaling?
Bakit ka pa humingi ng pera kay Gaite, e binigyan ka pala ng P 3 M pocket money ni Ermie Canlas of Gilmark, Contractor of Binay when you went to Hong Kong ?
Ano pinag-uusapan nyo ni Joey de V ng sinundan ka niya sa HK?
Magkano ba 1 kilo Jathropa, P 15/kilo, di ba?
Ba't mo binenta ng P 115/kilo?
Ba't di naka red plate Camry mo e binayaran yan ng Philforest?
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I can imagine Lozada's brand of demurred facial expression as he qualifies every answer to the queries above; in the first place, he was never at a loss for responses, like a magician whose bag of tricks is never empty.
I'm not saying Lozada is tricky. It's just that in this business of sseking the truth, a trick here and a trick there may crop up, perhaps by coincidence, perhaps by design, but definitely deliberate as it is arbitrary.
Truth is no magic potion. It can set us free, the Scriptures say.
So what is the truth, Mr. Lozada?
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LOCAL FRONT: Saint Bernard Mayor Rico Rentuza hit the nail right when he said that every commemoration of the Guinsaugon tragedy from now on will be a celebration of life, a thankgiving even, for the many blessings received by individual victims and survivors in particular, and the local government in general. Theirs was a paradigm shift from one of sadness, mourning, to one of forward-looking and futuristic attitude. Indeed, there is every reason to hope and to move on.
ODDLY YOURS: In the year 1818, the famous and well-known composer Van Beethoven was paid 100 pounds just to compose the tune of the "Ninth Symphony." In 2002, after 184 long years, the draft copy – the dirty draft, not the final copy -- was sold for 1,326,650 pounds. It's a good thing the scribbled scratch of his draft was not crumpled and thrown away, or lost by the passage of time. (PIA) [top]
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