I FEEL bad that the Lozada drama on the evil that is the ZTE-NBN scandal has begun to drag on, with the Senate hearing providing waning suspense, and some comic relief on the side, while making us bored with ho-hum questions that only pea-brained senators could muster.

        I am angry that while all what Lozada knows have been practically spilled over and villainous characters unmasked before the nation’s television screens, with no less than President GMA exposed as “evil”, we still have one coward left who deprives us with a definitive conclusion to the ugly drama. I fear that as Neri refuses to budge and tell under oath what he knows about the scandal-tainted multi-million broadband deal, Lozada will soon run out of fire and ammunition, with the people losing another golden opportunityto gain momentum for change and reform. Under that scenario, Lozada would have no choice but to return to his hometown Ligao, Albay as a fallen hero, a hunted man who should fall prey to deadly requital by powerful and influential men he named in his exposes.

        Neri, as a government official and a good citizen of this Republic, owes it to us to speak the truth because our soul and our pride as a people, or what’s left of them, are at stake here. Unless we resolve this shameless issue of corruption blowing into unimaginable proportions, we as a nation will remain drowned in the muck, the stink engulfing the whole archipelago and confirming our title as the world’s most corrupt nation.

        Because we have allowed ourselves to be part of a system that is made for crisis and scandal, expect another crisis, and another, to be in the offing, their disclosures only come because the opposition needs them for their own grandstanding, never mind if we are all trapped in the recurring politics of graft and plunder because we do not have the will to fight darkness with light, greed with humility, and betrayal with patriotism. That should also mean that the majority of our people are either corrupt or coward, or both, which should also include the few who are of good will but chose to do nothing for evil to triumph. Sometimes, I think we are one prison cell where the inmates have taken over and the guards locked up because they were less vigilant or prone to bribery and graft.

        If Neri would only do what his friend Jun Lozada has done, the political and economic crisis that we are in now would have begun dissipating for a new sunshine. That would have been an opportune time to start throwing the rascals out as we move on with a cleaner slate towards decency and good governance.

        In the while, we shall agree to have an interim president and wait to vote for a new one in 2010. Of course, nothing will be a walk in the park, but we need to take those steps with our body staunch and upright as we move to rebuild our nation once again after it had been ravaged by capricious men and women like Marcos, Erap, Madam Gloria and the First Gentleman.

        Of course, GMA will not resign because of Lozada’s disclosure alone, nor even with Neri’s confirmation of the evil things done. What will jolt her are the people’s mounting outrage and a sustained unified call for moral reform and change. We need a serious moral revolution that at the outset should require new faces in the Cabinet and a vigilant civil society that will be partners in good governance. If the First Gentleman could not be replaced, at least his chubby fingers should be cut or restrained from poking on every pie in Malacanang. He should learn his lesson well that stealing other people’s money is a grievous sin and that kickbacks belittle (no pun intended) the Office of the President and other institutions under its wings.

        And as 2010 approaches, we shall teach our voters to have the wisdom to grant the awesome powers of the presidency to someone who has the integrity, principle and decency to use them honorably. We have more than few good men and women but we also have over 70 million lousy and unprincipled voters who during every election time accord us with these few lousy and yet powerfully corrupt leaders.

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        The hot stuff these last few days as far as habitués of barbershops and coffee shops are concerned is no longer Jun Lozada but Romulo Neri, the bespectacled chairman of the Commission on Higher Education with that cute moustache. A well-educated economist and technocrat, he makes excellent postulations with threorems and numbers but couldn’t recall ever saying that GMA “is evil” during a meeting with Sens. Lacson and Madrigal along with Lozada two months ago. Why is he afraid to face the Senate about what he knows is the same question that’s baffling my friends and associates. What are the “goods” that the gods at the Palace have on him to keep him mum despite strong public pressure for him to be truthful? Why would he risk his good name and profession for the remaining two years in the corridors of power with an unpopular President? After two years, he would be a nobody, ostracized for his cowardice and his bad character of talking behind the back of his boss, the President. What price would he get for his canine loyalty to the President that cost him to be disowned by his peers in the academe and best friends? Seguro, na-blackmail or may sex video against him, my malicious friends could only say. Neri at this time may be caught between the tiger and the crocodile but an intelligent man that he is, I believe he will find his way out to salvage his good name when everything is not yet too late. When that time comes, we will have not one but two heroes in this chapter in our history when truth and righteousness have become rare commodities.