Damage Control, Diversionary Tactics and Dares

Just when things were beginning to get really exciting, Gloria Arroyo (I refuse to address her as President in this blog. Pwede ba!) backtracks and suspends the national broadband network deal with ZTE.

Even the most extreme of morons can see through this diversionary tactic and last-ditch attempt at damage control. By suspending the deal at the last minute, Arroyo and her co-conspirators probably hope to let rising public furor subside, divert attention away from testimonies indicating her and her husband's direct involvement in the deal, or even perhaps buy time to elbow those involved into a face-saving compromise.

Scrapping the ZTE contract is the best proof of sincerity in exercising "executive privilege". Unless Arroyo cancels the NBN ZTE deal outright, spelled out in plain black-and-white, there should be not let-up in the public investigations and protests. The people, Senate, Supreme Court and media should not let their guard down, not at this point. Not when watching live Senate hearings has become this gripping!

And speaking of Mike Arroyo--why is it that he slipped out of the country to Hong Kong last week, with the same undue haste with which he flew to Germany after Alan Peter Cayetano claimed that the First Family was keeping a multi-million dollar account in Munich last year? If he's so sick and unstained by guilt and in transit to recovery, then he should have no business flying here and about like a flustered bat.

Speaking of Arroyo's propensity to invoke "executive privilege", here's an unsolicited dare for GMA:

Exercise "executive privilege" to REVERSE the MTRCB's X-rating on the Jonas Burgos film project, RIGHTS. Let the film be shown to the widest number of viewers, so that the public may decide.

While we're on the MTRCB's X-rating, Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casino is calling for Congress to allot an annual budget of P1.00 to the MTRCB for being "an irrelevant agency in a so-called democracy" (nice way of putting it).

The last time the MTRCB was threatened with a P1.00 budget was back in October 2006, when it gave an X-rating to a film bio of Erap, also for "threatening the stability of the state" in the last three minutes of the film. I'm not a fan of Erap but nor do I like seeing works of public interest being given blanket censorship treatment.

This time around, Congress should take up the challenge and consider affirmative action on Rep. Casino's proposal. But regardless of whatever MTRCB gets this year, there's always YouTube to fall back on.