By MARY ANN MANJA BAYANG

One glaring realization that came out of all these chaos the government and the nation is in – Arroyo and her cronies cannot “moderate their greed” – greed for money and greed for power. They needed to cheat their way into power.

The “Hello Garci” exposé did not even make them budge from their seats. There is a syndicate in Malacañang whose main purpose is to amass wealth at the expense of the country and the Filipino people – and it is only by perpetuating themselves in power can they achieve their goal. Along the way, they have to bribe senators, congressmen, governors and other people. They have to deceive the Filipino people to shut them off from their evil deeds.

Arroyo had to commit fraud to maintain herself in power. Her two sons, using the machinery of the government, had themselves elected as local officials in two different provinces. The first gentleman, and his Jose Pidal accounts and intervention in many big government projects, is a clear example of how this big fat man is using the government, his wife’s authority and the family’s influence to collect gargantuan kickbacks from government projects.

Everyday, the Arroyo syndicate collects hundreds of thousands of money from the lottery office aside from receiving millions more as protection money from illegal gambling activities. They have become too greedy they want more and more everyday.

Arroyo’s cronies are very well into this syndicate of plunderers. They broker projects for the government with the objective of getting for themselves the “normal kickback” of 20%.

One day, these plunders got too greedy beyond the “norm” and asked for a kickback of almost one half of the value of the project. Despite cautions for them to “moderate their greed,” they simply cannot temper the greed. They believed they had enough power and influence to conceal their intensifying greed. But because the kickback was too big, “bumukol ito” (it bulged) and the people noticed it. It is now called the NBN-ZTE controversy.

From the NBN-ZTE controversy came out so many worms of corruption and deception in their highest forms. Malacañang gave orders and used its influence to drastically revise a bill which was already in the third reading in Congress. This bill identifies the boundaries and territories of the Philippines and it includes the Spratly Islands. Suspiciously, Arroyo and her allies wanted the Spratly Islands removed from this bill as part of the Philippines. It should be noted that China also claims the Spratly Islands as part of its territory. This suspicious maneuver by the syndicate completes the puzzle of the NBN-ZTE scandal – Arroyo and her group of crooks were not satisfied with all the money they amass everyday at the expense of the Filipino people – they want to sell the Philippines – or at least part of it, for more money to feed their greed. #