Romulo Neri, the current chair of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) dropped a bombshell at the Senate hearing last week, September 26th, saying that Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. allegedly offered him a bribe worth PhP200 million to “facilitate the approval of the NBN project.” The bribe incident allegedly happened around January of this year at the Wack-Wack Golf and Country Club while he and Abalos were alone together on a golf cart. He quoted Abalos saying: “Sec., may 200 ka dito.” Neri was at that time the director general of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA).

What’s interesting to note is that Neri also testified that when the bribe incident happened, and on the advice of his lawyers, he mentioned Abalos’ offer to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in a phone conversation. Whereby the president told him not to accept the bribe.

A bribe is a bribe no matter how small or big it is, right? The question is, was there anything done about this? Okay, so Neri is asked to turn down the bribe offer, and then what? He still approves the proposal? You can only imagine the increasing number of questions being formed at the minds of anyone intent on seeking the truth.

And so, until all the questions bugging concerned Filipinos are answered, the shroud of secrecy will continue to put the government in a bad light.

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Related Blog Entries:
The Abalos Scandal: ZTE and the National Broadband Network (NBN)
ZTE NBN Conspiracy Theories

Sources:
Inquirer.net – Neri admits Abalos ‘offer’ on NBN deal
Inquirer.net – Neri says Abalos offered him P200M

After weeks of helping my mom pack up at Subic in preparation for her migration to the US, it felt really weird going to my brother’s place in Quezon City to pick up all of her luggages for her Saturday morning flight.

I went there alone since Conne had to stay home to take care of our toddler, CJ, who had the flu. Present at the time were my uncle Dennis (my mom’s brother), Ding (my youngest brother), Emily (Ding’s wife), Cel (my brother Bong’s wife), and my nephews – Purple, Jervis and Indigo.

The evening turned out to be an emotional roller coaster of sorts brought about by the evening’s bout of stories, misunderstanding, arguments, tears, forgiveness and laughter. But everyone could tell that the overwhelming emotion present throughout that night was love.

The night ended with a prayer, a very heartfelt one.

On the way home, I dropped off my uncle at his place and dropped off Cel and Jervis at theirs.

As I rode home alone in silence, with the midnight darkness blanketing everything, in the drizzling rain, with no companion save my mom’s things, and with the after effects of that emotional night, my whole life flashed before me throughout that drive – and as I rounded the corner near our home, I knew then how extremely lucky I really am to have a good family behind me and a wonderful new stage in our lives ahead of us. I smiled.

After just recently recovering from Pneumonitis a few weeks back, I unfortunately came down with Dengue fever last week and so had to take some extended time off from work. This has definitely been a bad month for me, health-wise. :(

I had to make sure that I was completely hydrated, thanks to my Gatorade regimen, and that I had to regularly take in medicine for my fever and flu.

After a few days of on and off fever, my initial lab results showed that my platelet count was way below normal.

I’m glad I’m doing better now. Thank God.