Who is evil, who isn’t?

By Al S. Mendoza

IT’S now a matter of who is talking and who is listening.

If you are anti-evil as I know you are, you will believe Jun Lozada. If you are pro-evil, you will believe Romy Neri.

But first things first.

Jun  Lozada  has turned his back on GMA while Romy Neri  hasn’t.

Jun and Romy are close friends no more after Jun has bolted the GMA camp.

They were buddies, had golfed a lot.

But Jun has jumped to the other side, and proceeded to expose what he alleged was his friend’s sins to the Filipino people by claiming Romy had colluded with the evils of governance.

Jun has testified in the Senate that he was asked by Romy to “moderate the greed” of the President’s men salivating for kickbacks in government deals amounting to millions of dollars (not in pesos, mind you.)

Jun also told the Senate that he was offered P50,000 by Mike Defensor as “grocery money” in an apparent tradeoff for Jun to deny having known any wrong-doing in government deals.

Jun also told the Senate that Undersecretary Manny Gaite sent him P500,000 while Jun was sent to Hong Kong  by his superiors so that he could not testify in the Senate.

Defensor and Gaite both admitted having offered the bundles of money to Lozada.

And then Jun Lozada’s biggest, most debilitating, crushing bombshell: Romy Neri has called GMA “evil” during official meetings.

I can believe Jun.

And I can’t believe Neri’s answer when asked whether or not he really called GMA “evil.”

Said Neri, with his usual stoic stance:  “I can’t remember having said that.”

Can you believe that?

I mean do you believe Neri is telling the truth, that he couldn’t remember having called GMA “evil”?

GMA is no ordinary person.  Every word directed at her is almost a badge pinned on her chest, flattering or unflattering, and can’t be forgotten till the end of time.  Marcos was a dictator and that tag would be with him for as long as this world is with us.

If Neri didn’t call GMA evil, why can’t he say so?

What is he, a jerk?

Is he trying to make a fool of himself, or does he want us to buy his foolishness hook, line and sinker?

He wants to tell a lie and he can’t even do it right.

Oh, well, the hardest thing to do really is tell a lie.

But the people know when one is telling a lie.

The people know who killed Ninoy Aquino in 1983; they know who masterminded it.  No amount of lying, of cover-up, can hide the truth.

A quarter of a century later, another lie is being peddled anew – again, right at the people’s doorstep.

As in 1983, the people won’t bite.

The people know who the evil one is and, certainly, he is not Jun Lozada.

Gina de Venecia does not even have to corroborate Jun Lozada’s testimony in the Senate.  Her stance might even be interpreted to mean that, even if it’s really true that she has heard Neri “several times calling GMA evil,” Gina will be merely dismissed as sour-graping.

Wasn’t Gina’s hubby, the revered Joe de Venecia, ousted as House Speaker by GMA the “evil” in retaliation to the charges of JDV’s son, Joey de Venecia, that the “evil’s” hubby was involved in the now-scuttled multi-million dollar ZTE NBN deal?

Anyway, the people would always know whom to believe. When will they make their move to banish the evil to purgatory – that is the question crying for an answer.

Or will the “evil” dwarf her worldly stature and voluntarily step down from her perch to avoid a bloody end?

      That will be the day.

(Readers may reach columnist at also147@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/general-admission/ For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)

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