Hoo boy! Glued to the TV watching Neri, Abalos and JDV3

Gad, I wouldn't be so surprised if he gets a heart attack: Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos looked like he just saw his favorite golf club reduced to a twisted mess of metal under a steam roller moving along a concrete pavement. CHEd chair Romulo Neri just said under oath that he was surprised when Abalos told him "Sec, may 200 ka dito." Nevermind if it's P200, P200,000 or P200 million, Neri said that he was shocked because it was so big. Clearly he understood it to be to a large sum, and when he told Pres. Arroyo, she told him don't accept the money but approve the project.
Talk about the roof flying off!
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Am writing this while paying attention to the senate investigations on the ZTE Corp contract telecast live over at ANC. It's impossible to focus on my work today because, well, I just have to watch and hear the senate hearing -- everyone here at the office is also riveted, and have been so since last week. Even yesterday's wire-tapping investigations was like a soap opera what with Arlene Doble exposing the former ISAFP agent Vidal of being a serial womanizer and a good-for-nothing excuse for a human being.
I can't believe am actually enjoying this.
Abalos really twinked. Involuntarily he took a deep breath -- It think it's already hit him how deep the trouble he's in.
Okay, now Sen. Lacson is questioning Abalos about JDV III. He seems bent on denying everything. Just deny deny deny. But hell, kahit ano pang sabihin niya, what the heck was he doing getting himself involved with the ZTE Corporation and brokering a multi-million dollar government broadband contract? He's the chairman of the Comelec!
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All of his bluff and bluster is gone, his previous confidence wrung out of him. Abalos looks like he's barely keeping himself up.

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JDV III is being questioned. In contrast to  Abalos, he exudes confidence. He looks like he's had a good night's sleep, and his dreams were very kind to him. Who knows if he's a good guy or not (nevermind his former drug habit and receding hairline which Luli Arroyo says must have affected his brain and prompted him to expose Abalos and her father the First Gentleman), but right now he's a favorite of mine. For reasons strictly related to his testimony in the senate (and he's a fluent and clear explainer as well).

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Lacson is abrutal. He's scary.He's going after Abalos' jugular, and Abalos for his part had just said that Neri lied under oath.

Abalos is now beginning to take on the look of a drowning cat who survived, but it's still well aware that the dunking is still not over.

It's Jinggoy's turn.

Abalos is denying everything left and right. I think his game plan now is to simply deny everything and say that everyone else who says different is a freaking liar. Am starting to feel quite, quite sorry for him, but heck, this is what you get for orchestrating massive fraud in the 2004 and 2007 polls (harhar, karma. Maybe there really is something to that Hindu belief).

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Si Miriam Defensor-Santiago nanggugulo na naman. She's a real weirdo - agaw eksena talaga. I don't know what the hell she's saying -- she says that the witnesses are all lying, but telling the truth as well. She should be prohibited from attending the senate investigations on important issues. She's a complete whack-job. Why the hell she's not in a strait-jacket is a mystery. Dinadaan lang siya sa lakas ng boses, utang na loob. For the most part, she's a self-centered, self-righteous official who trusts no one's word but her own.

The media probably continues to pay attention to her because she's nakakaaliw. A good source of out-of-this-world quotes. She makes good copy the same way major traffic accidents make the headlines. She's a walking, talking circus act, kulang na lang ang big red nose and the big hair. Gad, what I would give for a massive scandal to break out involving her -- say, she gets caught having sex with a 19-year old male prostitute, or shoplifting from Rustan's or any one of those high-end stores in Rockwell.

She's now attacking the credibility of JDVIII as a businessman.She's also made a hyper racist remark: China invented corruption (so all Chinese are inherently corrupt?!) She's gone totally nuts, and on camera as well.

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Kiko Pangilinan was firm and to-the-point in his questioning, but Neri invokes the Malacanang gag order. Pangilinan is determined to get to the bottom of Neri's talks with the president regarding the bribery attempt and the ZTE contract.
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It's Loren Legarda's turn now. She's wearing pink. She's questioning Abalos about whether not his functions as Comelec chair have anything to do with brokering business deals with foreign partners. Wala daw, sabi ni Abalos. The next logical questions hangs them unasked: kung wala, bakit ka nakikialam sa paglakad ng deal?

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It's pathetic how Abalos keeps saying that  JDVIII was the one who kept hounding him, following him around and dropping by Wack-Wack Golf and Country Club and the Comelec to pester him about the NBN contract.

JDVIII said that he's not a member of Wack-Wack, and that there's no way to enter the club if one is not a member without being invited by a member or better, an official of the club.

If Abalos didn't want JDV III from following him, then he should have had him banned from Wack-Wack, or a restraining order, or ordered the guards at the door to lie whenever JDV III came knocking.

Joker Arroyo is now picking Neri apart about the latter's endorsement of the broadband project. I don't think Joker is doing such a good job of making clear what really transpired. But then again, he's trying to determine the process of the how the NBN project was conceptualized and given shape to.

Ang nakakatawa, Joker doesn't look at all knowledgeable about the technical aspect of consultations between government agencies when determining projects it will undertake, feasibility studies and financial reports and all that. Nagkakalat si Joker Arroyo! He doesn't know what he's talking about! Venturing into unknown and unfamiliar territory. It's obvious he doesn't know or understand the workings and functions of the NEDA.

Sen. Arroyo, what's wrong with going over and expressing approval for a well-written and well-conceptualized project proposal? Especially it aims to bring down costs for the government?

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Resumption of hearing. Sen. Enrile taking a crack at JDV3 and questioning him about communications between DOTC and Ernesto Garcia, colleague of JDV3. The title of the  House Speaker  JDV Jr. has been mentioned.

Is the son a little shaken? Enrile is reading deliberately slowly, and the letter is being admitted into record. The NEDA's approval for the Orion/Amsterdam proposal is being  mentioned.

Enrile's asking JDV3 whether the Speaker has any interest in the project, and why is the office of the Speaker has sent a letter on the NBN to the DOTC.

The North Rail Project has been mentioned -- another mess of a project which was endorsed by the NBN, and another (daw, sabi ni Enrile) baby of Speaker de Venecia.

Hmmm, some of the heat will now be shifting to de Venecia I think.

Umeksena si Zubiri kasi daw lumalabas sa media na missing in action siya sa ZTE hearing. May skedyul daw siya (bakit defensive ang dating niya?)

Chiz Escudero after Joker's fumbling attempts to redeem himself by asking why Joey's name does not appear in any of the documents of Amsterdam holdings.

Chiz says its questionable why the ZTE contract has been kept under such close wraps.Ang NEDA daw ang head ng lahat ng deliberations dahil ODA ang contract.

(Chiz really talks like a robot -- monotone ang boses niya e. High tone, low tone, high and low. Oh well. In his case, it doesn't matter kasi may laman naman ang sinasabi niya.)

He's now questioning NEDA and Neri's authority to assist in the privatization of  the telecoms industry by entering deals with the foreign private sector and awarding contract. The NEDA and the DOTC and the DTI have endorsed the ZTE contract, and Chiz says that this questionable.

In this round, it's the government itself that's under fire for entering the contract of procurement. This is getting complicated now, malay ko ba sa proseso niyan! But what I understand is this, the NEDA -- the executive too -- overstepped their boundaries in getting involved with this project directly and instructing the DOTC to go along with it as well.

--I can't keep this up. Am getting behind my work!

Abalos has lost his temper, but the very able chairman of the Blue Ribbon Committee Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano was able to calm him down AND make him realize the inconsistencies in his statements to the media and his current testimony re: JDV3 and their meetings, including the one in China.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel asks: may anak ka ba sa labas?
Abalos: That's unfair to my wife and children.

That's a very effective tactic ha, to shock the person, get him off-balanced with a personal question about a personal weakness and then quickly shift to resuming your original questions. Nagulantang na ang pobre, wala nang presence of mind, all semblance of calm and confidence shot to smithereens!

Suspended na.

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And they're. Zubiri again denies that he met with Abalos. Pimentel says hindi pa tapos ang isyu, pero ibang venue na lang daw para hindi mawala sa focus ang pinag-uusapan sa ZTE investigations.

Cayetano allows Madrigal to begin her questioning: interesting daw ang isang sinabi ni Abalos about raising money by waving a piece of paper.

Who is Abalos' travel agent? Wala daw. Jamby asks hindi pa mahirap magtravel nang walang agent  considering you've gone abroad at least seven, eight times in the last year.

Jamby reads an account of the Speaker's report that he heard the President speak with Abalos about the ZTE contract. Is Abalos saying that there was no such conversation? Is he willing to be the fall guy for the president? Nagtuturuan na kasi ang mga tao.

Abalos: Huh? What? Huh?! Duh?! Hindi ko na alam saan ako lalagay, your honor.

Jamby: Sa kangkungan. I sympathize with you kung ilalaglag ka na. (Ang taray ni madam! Jus me).

Sen. Honasan quizzing Neri on the NEDA processes. Most instructive. Sabi Gringo, Neri is the fulcrum of the investigations, and his credibility impacts on the outcome of the investigations.Ano kaya ang point niya?

Medyo nakakatawa ang quetsioning ni Sen. Bong Revilla. I couldn't take it seriously. He has good fashion sense, though -- pink polo shirt, gray necktie.

Pia Cayetano on the floor.  She strikes me as so much milk and water, then suddenly there's steel. Sa wakas pinagsalita si Rolex Suplico, pero no your honor lang ang sagot. She's called a roll call  of the witnesses, asking them if they've been investigated by Malacanang in its discreet efforts. Walang kahit isa sa kanila ang nakakaalam na may discreet investigations ang pangulo -- wow, sobrang discreet talaga!

Pia wonders about the ZTE suspension. Para que? To throw the senate investigations off-kilter? She's questioning Mendoza. Now the questioning has shifted to Neri: she's confirming the dateline stated in Jarius Bondoc's column and whether or not they're based on reality. Paano nagawang bigyan ng gurantee ang approval ng NBN contract when so many requirements were still not met?

Ate Pia is allowed by younger brother Alan to ask: wala bang interpreters nung panahon ng negotiations over the contract?

Mendoza: Wala. technical staff ang bihasa sa english. (Whoah! Paano kung iba ang tina-translate? Iba pala dapat ang itsura ng deal, or maybe no deal would've been finalized at all dahil sa mga translations ng interpreter!!)

Somehow I am interested by Sen. Gordon's line of questioning. He's being plain mean and deliberately difficult in his cross-examination of Neri. As if kasalanan ni Neri na palpak ang priorities ng gobyerno (actually, kasalanan ng NEDA, ng Malacanang, ng mga ahensya nito, ng kongreso at mga trapo, at mga bulok na opisyales ng korte).

Change that - am interested. Ang taray din ni Gordon. Gad, I officially feel sorry for Abalos -- Gordon made him a laughingstock. He made Abalos look like a doddering old fool. Photokina anyone?

Bastusan galore. A colleague here sez the middle class has made up its mind about Abalos- their representatives in the gallery are laughing themselves to stomachaches.

Sen. Pimentel calls for subpoena of Abalos flight records, Alan Cayetano asks for passport.

Sen.Mar Roxas' turn, questioning Mendoza who looks relieved and grateful that he's not Abalos. More inconsistencies - done deal na ba talaga ang deal with the ZTE o hindi? Ang gulo na nila,a. Lumalabas na hindi. BOT project? E bakit uutang from the national coffers? ODA ba? Where's the money (napunta sa bulsa nina Abalos?).

Roxas coins "mahiwagang golf game" to refer to where and when the P200M bribery took place.