Tuesday, February 19, 2008 (Philippines)

AT A SECRET MEETING last Dec. 7, 2007. Cabinet Secretary Romulo Neri allegedly called President Gloria Arroyo evil and identified “oligarchs” of her administration who benefited from government policies and contracts. The President (left)in a talk with businessmen the other day, Rodolfo Lozada Jr. (top) at yesterday’s Senate hearing with the P.5 million cash he said he got from a Cabinet undersecretary, and Neri at a press conference. (AP Photos) FORMER socio-economic planning secretary Romulo Neri called President Arroyo an “evil person” and described her as being in the center of the “ecosystem of corruption,” Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. said yesterday in the continuation of the Senate hearing on the aborted national broadband network (NBN) deal. But Neri said he could not recall describing the President as evil and offered a different version of what transpired during a “confidential” meeting attended by Lozada and Sens. Panfilo Lacson and Jamby Madrigal in Makati City last Dec. 7. Lozada also told senators that in that meeting Neri showed “drawings” of the oligarchs who influence and benefit from corruption, including Enrique Razon, chairman and president of International Container Terminal Services, Inc.; Lucio Tan, Tommy Alcantara and one of the Aboitizes. [full story]