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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| More Contrarian Voices
By Antonio C. Abaya Written Jan. 28, 2008 For the Standard Today, January 28 issue The wonders of the Internet. My article of Jan. 25, Contrarian Voices, was sent by email to my e-distribution list on the evening of Jan. 25. Within hours, I received from Marc Morano of the US Senate ([email protected]) an electronic copy of the US Senate Report: Over 400 Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007, which had been originally released on Dec. 20, 2007. Says the Report in its Introduction: �Over 400 prominent scientists from more than two dozen countries recently voiced significant objections to major aspects of the so-called �consensus� on man-made global warming. These scientists, many of whom are current and former participants in the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), criticized the climate claims made by the UN IPCC and former Vice-President Al Gore�� �This blockbuster Senate report lists the scientists by name, country of residence, and academic/institutional affiliation. It also features their own words, biographies, and weblinks to their peer-reviewed studies and original source materials as gathered from public statements, various news outlets, and websites in 2007�.. The Report went on to say that �This new Report details how teams of international scientists are dissenting from the UN IPCC�s view of climate science. In such nations as Germany , Brazil , the Netherlands , Russia , New Zealand and France , scientists banded together in 2007 to oppose climate alarmism�.. �This new committee Report, a first of its kind, comes after the UN IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri implied that there were only �about a dozen� skeptical scientists left in the world. Former Vice-President Gore has claimed that scientists skeptical of climate change are akin to �flat Earth society members� and similar in number to those who �believe the moon landing was actually staged in a movie lot in Arizona ���.. �The distinguished scientists featured in this new Report are experts in diverse fields, including climatology, geology, biology, glaciology, bio-geography, meteorology, oceanography, economics, chemistry, mathematics, environmental sciences, engineering, physics and paleo-climatology. Some of those profiled have won Nobel Prizes for their outstanding contribution to their fields of expertise and many have shared a portion of the UN IPCC Nobel Peace Prize with Vice-President Gore�.. �The voices of many of these hundreds of scientists serve as a direct challenge to the often media-hyped �consensus� that the debate is �settled��� The Report also raises the point that �The notion of �hundreds� or �thousands� of UN scientists agreeing to a scientific statement does not hold up to scrutiny��The most recent attempt to imply that there was an overwhelming scientific �consensus� in favor of man-made global warming fears came in December 2007 during the UN climate conference in Bali. A letter signed by only 215 scientists urged the UN to mandate deep cuts in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. But absent from the letter were the signatures of these alleged �thousands� of scientists�� �In addition to the growing number of scientists expressing skepticism, an abundance of recent peer-reviewed studies have cast considerable doubt about man-made global warming fears. A November 3, 2007 peer-reviewed study found that �solar changes significantly alter climate.� �� �A peer-reviewed study by a team of scientists found that �warming is naturally caused and shows no human influence.� Another November 2007 peer-reviewed study in the journal Physical Geography found �Long-term climate change is driven by solar insolation (did they mean �insulation� ACA) changes��� Etc. etc.. Among the scientists cited and quoted in the Report are: Israel � Dr. Nathan Polder, professor of Dynamical Meteorology and Physical Oceanography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem: �First, temperature changes, as well as rates of temperature changes (both increase and decrease) of magnitudes similar to that reported by IPCC to have occurred since the Industrial Revolution (about 0.8C in 150 years or even 0.4C in the last 35 years) have occurred in Earth�s climatic history. There�s nothing special about the recent rise.� Netherlands � Dr. Henrik Tennekes, a scientific pioneer in the development of numerical weather prediction and former director of research at the The Netherlands� Royal National Meteorological Institute. �I find the Doomsday picture Al Gore is painting � a six-meter sea level rise, 15 times the IPCC number � entirely without merit�.I protest vigorously the idea that the climate reacts like a home heating system to a changed setting of the thermostat: just turn the dials, and the desired temperature will soon be reached.� Brazil � Chief Meteorologist Eugenio Hackbart of the MetSul Meteorologia Weather Center in Sao Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul. �The media is promoting an unprecedented hyping related to global warming. The media and many scientists are ignoring very important facts that point to a natural variation in the climate system as the cause of the recent global warming�.� France � Climatologist Dr. Marcel Leroux, former professor at the Universite Jean Moulin and director of the Laboratory of Climatology, Risks and Environment in Lyon . �Day after day, the same mantra � that �the Earth is warming up� � is churned out in all its forms. As �the ice melts� and �sea level rises,� the Apocalypse looms ever nearer! Without realizing it, or perhaps wishing to, the average citizen is bamboozled, lobotomized, lulled into mindless acceptance�Non-believers in the greenhouse scenario are in the position of those long ago who doubted the existence of God�fortunately for them, the Inquisition is no longer with us�� Norway � Geologist/Geochemist Dr. Tom Segalstad, a professor and head of the Geological Musuem at the University of Oslo and formerly an expert reviewer with the UN IPCC. �It is a search for a mythical CO2 sink to explain an immeasurable CO2 lifetime to fit a hypothetical CO2 computer model that purports to show that an impossible amount of fossil fuel burning is heating the atmosphere. It is all a fiction.� Finland � Dr. Boris Winterhalter, retired Senior Marine Researcher of the Geological Survey of Finland and former professor of marine geology at the University of Helsinki . �The effect of solar winds on cosmic radiation has just recently been established and, furthermore, there seems to be a good correlation between cloudiness and variations in the intensity of cosmic radiation. Here we have a mechanism, which is a far better explanation to variations in global climate than the attempts by the IPCC to blame it all on anthropogenic input of greenhouse gases.� India � B. P. Radhakrishna, President of the Geological Society of India . �We appear to be overplaying this global warming issue as global warming is nothing new. It has happened in the past, not once but several times, giving rise to glacial-interglacial cycles.� Poland � Physicist Dr. Zbigniew Jaworoski, chairman of the Central Laboratory for the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Radiological Protection in Warsaw . �We thus find ourselves in the situation that the entire theory of man-made global warming � with its repercussions in science, and its important consequences for politics � is based on ice core studies that provided a false picture of the atmospheric CO2 levels.� (My article Contrarian Voices was based largely on Dr, J�s paper �CO2 � The Greatest Scientific Scandal of Our Time�) Australia � Dr. Ian Plimer, professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Adelaide . �There is new work emerging even in the last few weeks that shows we can have a very close correlation between the temperatures of the Earth and supernova and solar radiation.� Denmark � Space physicist Dr. Eigil Friis-Christensen, director of the Danish National Space Centre, a member of the space research advisory committee of the Swedish National Space Board, a member of a NASA working group, and a member of the European Space Agency. �The Sun is the source of the energy that causes the motion of the atmosphere and thereby controls weather and climate. Any change in the energy from the Sun received at the Earth�s surface will therefore affect climate.� Belgium � Climate scientist Luc Debontridder of the Belgium Weather Institute�s Royal Meteorological Institute. �CO2 ia not the big bogeyman of climate change and global warming. Not CO2 but water vapor is the most important greenhouse gas. It is responsible for at least 75% of the greenhouse effect. This is a simple scientific fact, but Al Gore�s movie has hyped CO2 so much that nobody seems to take note of it.� Sweden � Geologist Dr. Wibjorn Karlen, professor emeritus of the Department of Physical Geography and Quarternary Geology at Stockholm University , critiqued the Associated Press for promoting climate fears in 2007. �Another of these hysterical views of our climate. Newspapers should think about the damage they are doing to many persons, particularly young kids, by spreading the exaggerated views of a human impact on climate.� USA � Dr. David Wojick, a UN IPCC expert reviewer and co-founder of the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie-Mellon University. �In point of fact, the hypothesis that solar variability and not human activity is warming the oceans goes a long way to explain the puzzling idea that the Earth�s surface may be warming while the atmosphere is not. The GHG (greenhouse gas) hypothesis does not do this. The public is not well served by this constant drumbeat of false alarms fed by computer models manipulated by advocates.� There is just enough space to insert the caveat that it is possible that the senator/senators who drafted this Senate Report received financial encouragement from the Oil Lobby to downplay the UN IPCC � Al Gore Religion of man-made Global Warming. In the US system of governance, that is how policies are formulated and translated into law. Even our Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri claims the Oil Lobby is financing those who question the wisdom of his Bio-Fuel Act.. But it is doubtful if the Oil Lobby made similar approaches to the hundreds of scientists worldwide who did not/do not worship at the man-made Global Warming altar. Speaking for myself, this contrarian view of Global Warming is not a license to burn fossil fuel with greater abandon (since we cannot stop global warming and climate change anyway). It is instead an additional encouragement for the search for alternative sources of energy other than oil, so that the world can be free of the eye-gouging by oil-producing countries and the greedy oil companies, which have had the world over a barrel (pun intended) since the 1970s. Like Mike Huckabee, I look forward to the day when we can tell �them�: �You can keep your frigging oil.�. And since 1995, when I was given a briefing on it in Irvine , California , I have been advocating hydrogen fuel cells as the energy source of the future. The future is now upon us: from 2008 to 2010, hydrogen fuel cell cars are to be mass-produced by Honda, BMW and Daimler-Chrysler. ***** Reactions to [email protected]. Other articles in www.tapatt.org and in acabaya.blogspot.com. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to �More Contrarian Voices� Reactions to Kurt Cuffrey The Sun Also Sets Jun Lozada, Filipino Hero Tony, This is really confusing me. I have been a practicing environmentalist for over a decade in my own small way. I practice the Reuse-Reduce-Recycle discipline. I read labels in products to check if they contain ingredients which are harmful to the environment, I don't use aerosol products, I planted trees, my fridge is nonCFC, I don't burn my garbage, and my car used to be a non-gas-guzzler (I rarely drive now since there's a convenient shuttle service within our subdivision). I'm always conscious of conserving energy. When I was still working, I managed the corporation's reforestation program and pioneered the Green Office concept. The statement "solar changes significantly alter climate" seems to suggest that the erratic behavior of the weather, the greenhouse effect, and the flooding in certain areas are all natural phenomena. Is the global warming issue overblown then? We don't know whom to believe anymore. Best, Yett Montalvan, (by email), Jan. 30, 2008 (What you are doing is commendable, Yett, and you should continue doing them. That it is not crystal clear if global warming and climate change are due to human or to solar activities does not erase the fact that burning fossil fuels is dirty and is really ruining the environment. Humankind should continue its search for cleaner energy sources so that we can tell those countries and corporations that hold us hostage to their oil that they can shove it up the Straits of Hormuz. ACA) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya, In your a.m. article you quote "solar insolation" from the journal Physical Geography as a potential source for global warming but you misunderstood this term. May I help you: It means the sun's light emission covering the whole spectrum of wavelength from Ultra-Violet to Iinfra-Red. Helmut Rentzing, (by email), Heidelberg , Germany , Jan. 30, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Global warming or not, polluting the environment is not good for the health and the purse of the public since in our part, health care is publicly funded..and this morning I was riding the bus to work in one of new Hybrid Electric Buses the city mass transit system is putting into service and they are much quieter with their electric motors running and of course less pollution, also the new Diesel Common Rail technology engines emit lesser carbon dioxide and very quiet and smooth. Also one of the best program the Canadian Government had initiated in regards to car pollution was the imposition of punitive taxes up to $3000 for Gas Guzzlers and granting of rebates for fuel efficient cars up to $2000. Since it's kind of hard to legislate common sense, incentives are the best options...Thanks and regards... Victor.A. Sanoy, (by email), Toronto , Canada., Jan. 30, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Tony, There will be a new hydrogen-powered fuel cell engine by Year 2010 on top of what Honda, Toyota, BMW, Daimler-Chrysler, General Motors and PSA of France are already doing. Nicolas Hayek, the man behind the micro-sized Smart car and head of the Swiss watch group Swatch, wants to be in the industrial production and marketing of the new engine by 2010. Hayek plans to form an alliance with the Swiss energy Group E and the Paul Scherre Institute to develop the new car engine utilizing fuel cell technology. The partners will invest 12-18 million pounds on its R & D. The information above is based on an AFP report published in the Philippine STAR last 26 August 2007. By the way, Hayek was credited for saving the moribund Swiss watch industry against Japanese competition in the 80s. His Smart car project is a joint-venture with Daimler-Chrysler. Incidentally, Daimler has already sold its Chrysler business to a private investment company. Regards. Rick Ramos, (by email), Santa Rosa , Laguna, Jan. 31, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hello Tony, And what alternatives do these experts offer? Do they clearly explain the Sun's activity, the sun spots, etc. It is rather impossible to study the suns activity that scientists are limited only to studying it's effect, but what causes it will never be known as it has to be done closely to the source. (Maybe it can be done at night so they can get closer to the sun). I agree with you, these skepticisms does not give us the license to burn fossil fuel as much as people like. Maybe the IPCC and environmental advocates is blowing it up so much. But that is what advocacy is all about. No one will bother with a campaign if it is done so subtle and therefore boring. It needs to be made controversial and debatable. Actually skepticism helps the campaign because it is bringing the issue into discussion. At the end of the day, it is the people who will decide which side to take and that decision will be based on empirical judgment. If the people on one side of the earth experienced a heatwave first time in their life, then they will believed the theory, but if cold spell is felt instead then they will believe otherwise. There is only one thing I know, we are losing our forest covers which helps transmit the cool air from the sea. The sea breeze is cold because of the cooling effect of sea water evaporation. Without the trees, the heat from the soil scorched by sun's heat, heats up the air. Trees absorbed CO2 through photosynthesis as we learned even during our elementary school years so without the trees there will be more CO2 in the atmosphere. Then scientists say that CO2 has that greenhouse effect that traps the sun's radiant heat. The more CO2 molecules in the atmosphere, the more capable it can contain heat. Why do we need experts opinion? It is very simple that even pre-schooler can understand. We can be expert in our sense by taking correct decisions that will affect ourselves and sometimes we don't really need other people's opinion just to know what's good for us. As long as we are in our right senses. Let's be one in saving our planet, Edel Anit, (by email), Jan. 31, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Even if the theory of Al Gore is wrong, I am still thankful because at long last the country and its citizens would now gradually ease itself from oil. I am not a big fan of environmentalists in the first place but I would grudgingly hold their hand if it means eradicating our dependency on oil which the Arabs and other radical (re: Anti-US) countries are increasingly using as a political tool. VINZ, [email protected], Feb. 03, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Mr. Abaya, ...Meanwhile India has just announced a USD 2,500 conventional car which is too cheap that demand for gas will increase significantly in India initially and globally eventually when it is marketed worldwide or at least in third-world countries (for it is as cheap as a tricycle)with the attendant pollution increase. The increased demand will jack up the price of gas. The oil industry will again make a killing. Ergo, we don't really need the global warming spectre to goad us into looking seriously at non-fossil fuels. To alternative fuel advocates, HELP ! More power ! Ernie del Rosario,(by email), Cainta, Rizal, Feb. 04, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hi Tony, After reading "More Contrarian Voices", I got to thinking that all those scientists you cited (and there were many) couldn't be all wrong about global warming. Were the jurors of the Nobel Prize gullible then in their choice of Al Gore? Regards, Yett Montalvan, (by email), Feb. 06, 2008 (The Nobel Prize committees have been known to make mistakes and/or politically motivated choices, especially in Peace and Literature. ACA) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony, Does it really matter if the activities mankind is engaged in causes global warming? After all, these are activities we should be curbing regardless as they also cause air, water and soil pollution. I suspect the power players are promoting these contrarian views for the simple reason of protecting their profits and power. Tim Forman, (by email), Seattle , WA , Feb. 07, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Reactions to Kurt Cuffrey Hello Tony, On the reaction of Kurt Cuffrey to your article, it has been observed by many how the global warming crowd is highly intolerant of contrarian views to the point of stifling debate. Many a bureaucrat and research scientist have lost jobs and funding just for daring to publish a contrarian view. You can see it in the very intemperate reaction of Mr Cuffrey. When men of science start stifling debate, we all loose. Lino Ongteco, (by email), Feb. 06, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony, Dung, er, dang! What an arrogant scatologist, er, scientist that Curt Cuffey is! Louie, Fernandez, (by email), New Jersey , Feb. 06, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya, Ignoring the argumentum ad hominem between you and Prof. Cuffey, I find the latter's five points of consideration irresistibly compelling. If we use his five points in analyzing the contrarian view, I think Dr. Cuffey is correct in his diatribe that it is "...analogous to the creationist arguments; they selectively site articles, mostly out of context, in order to build a case. Like a house built of bricks made of shit." Talking about shit. There's a bestseller book (2005) written by Prof. Harry Frankfurt entitled "On Bullshit." It is a book I still use to start my class discussions during the first week of classes. Frankfurt warns us that bullshit is worse than a lie. At least, a liar stands in relation to the truth except that he/she makes a false claim. On the other hand, a bullshitter is not even interested with the truth. Worse, a bullshitter's sole aim is to spin a story, a shit literally devoid of nutritional value to persuade his/her audience. And I think, there is so much bullshit being peddled around that one cannot help but get mad like Dr. Cuffey. I agree with him that what is peddled here is bullshit and not truth. And we can apply this to our situation too (political, religious, journalism, etc.). Just imagine, the unrelenting bullshit they feed us. In the spirit of Prof. Frankfurt's essay, I have nothing more to say, except to say, SHIT! Efren N. Padilla, Ph.D., (by email), Hayward , CA , Feb.06, 2008 California State University at East Bay (But that applies to all who claim to possess the One and Only Truth, whether it be scientific, religious, academic or journalistic. Bullshit has been the domineering orthodoxy through much of history, from the Inquisition, to the God-ordained terra-centric universe, to the scientific inevitability of the triumph of Communism, to the joyless paradise of the Wahabis and the Talibans. It is no different in the 21st century. ACA) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony, I note your RX to "Contrarian Voices" has revealed some of the 'new language' of intelligent scientific debate. (E.G. "The contrarian arguments have now reached a pathetic level of stupidity" ---"a selection of ignorant and selective sources is irresponsible, and stupid. I've wasted too much of my life already arguing with these idiots" ---"this is all bullcrap" ---"in doing so shows his own stupidity" ---" professional jealousy descends to the level of fishwives") Re your apt comment: "Time to bring out the stretch rack and the nail pullers to teach them the One and Only Truth. ACA" Please do your best to discourage them from 'burning each other at the stake' as well, because this will only add to the carbon dioxide in the air. D. John Adams, (by email), United Kingdom , Feb. 06, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww "The new report issued by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's office of the GOP Ranking Member" is the key phrase to this report. It is not a report of the full senate but of a conservative Bush Republican, James M. Inhofe. It is not even the report of an open, bipartisan committee. All Imhofe's staff did was to scour the Internet to pick and choose favorable comments to include in his "report." Of course, a global warming denier can choose to give it credibility because there is nothing else at this time. It is misleading to call it a Senate Report and no major American newspaper reported it as such. The "report" was circulated by conservatives through blogs and has mislead people, especially those who are prone to accept uncritically "information" favorable to their personal views. The "Senate Environment and Public Works Office" of Imhofe is his alone and ONLY A FOOL will claim it speaks for the U.S. Senate. Hector Santos, (by email), Feb. 09, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww http://ibdeditorial.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=287279412587175 The Sun Also Sets By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY February 08, 2008 Climate Change: Not every scientist is part of Al Gore's mythical "consensus." Scientists worried about a new ice age seek funding to better observe something bigger than your SUV � the sun. Back in 1991, before Al Gore first shouted that the Earth was in the balance, the Danish Meteorological Institute released a study using data that went back centuries that showed that global temperatures closely tracked solar cycles. To many, those data were convincing. Now, Canadian scientists are seeking additional funding for more and better "eyes" with which to observe our sun, which has a bigger impact on Earth's climate than all the tailpipes and smokestacks on our planet combined. And they're worried about global cooling, not warming. Kenneth Tapping, a solar researcher and project director for Canada 's National Research Council, is among those looking at the sun for evidence of an increase in sunspot activity. Solar activity fluctuates in an 11-year cycle. But so far in this cycle, the sun has been disturbingly quiet. The lack of increased activity could signal the beginning of what is known as a Maunder Minimum, an event which occurs every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century. Such an event occurred in the 17th century. The observation of sunspots showed extraordinarily low levels of magnetism on the sun, with little or no 11-year cycle. This solar hibernation corresponded with a period of bitter cold that began around 1650 and lasted, with intermittent spikes of warming, until 1715. Frigid winters and cold summers during that period led to massive crop failures, famine and death in Northern Europe . Tapping reports no change in the sun's magnetic field so far this cycle and warns that if the sun remains quiet for another year or two, it may indicate a repeat of that period of drastic cooling of the Earth, bringing massive snowfall and severe weather to the Northern Hemisphere. Tapping oversees the operation of a 60-year-old radio telescope that he calls a "stethoscope for the sun." But he and his colleagues need better equipment. In Canada , where radio-telescopic monitoring of the sun has been conducted since the end of World War II, a new instrument, the next-generation solar flux monitor, could measure the sun's emissions more rapidly and accurately. As we have noted many times, perhaps the biggest impact on the Earth's climate over time has been the sun. For instance, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Solar Research in Germany report the sun has been burning more brightly over the last 60 years, accounting for the 1 degree Celsius increase in Earth's temperature over the last 100 years. R. Timothy Patterson, professor of geology and director of the Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Center of Canada's Carleton University , says that "CO2 variations show little correlation with our planet's climate on long, medium and even short time scales." Rather, he says, "I and the first-class scientists I work with are consistently finding excellent correlations between the regular fluctuations of the sun and earthly climate. This is not surprising. The sun and the stars are the ultimate source of energy on this planet." Patterson, sharing Tapping's concern, says: "Solar scientists predict that, by 2020, the sun will be starting into its weakest Schwabe cycle of the past two centuries, likely leading to unusually cool conditions on Earth." "Solar activity has overpowered any effect that CO2 has had before, and it most likely will again," Patterson says. "If we were to have even a medium-sized solar minimum, we could be looking at a lot more bad effects than 'global warming' would have had." In 2005, Russian astronomer Khabibullo Abdusamatov made some waves � and not a few enemies in the global warming "community" � by predicting that the sun would reach a peak of activity about three years from now, to be accompanied by "dramatic changes" in temperatures. A Hoover Institution Study a few years back examined historical data and came to a similar conclusion. "The effects of solar activity and volcanoes are impossible to miss. Temperatures fluctuated exactly as expected, and the pattern was so clear that, statistically, the odds of the correlation existing by chance were one in 100," according to Hoover fellow Bruce Berkowitz. The study says that "try as we might, we simply could not find any relationship between industrial activity, energy consumption and changes in global temperatures." The study concludes that if you shut down all the world's power plants and factories, "there would not be much effect on temperatures." But if the sun shuts down, we've got a problem. It is the sun, not the Earth, that's hanging in the balance.***** wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww NOTE: If you are reading this on acabaya.blogspot.com, it may be truncated because of limited space. The entire post appears/will appear on www.tapatt.org. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (Forwarded to Tapatt by the Black and White Movement) JUN LOZADA � A FILIPINO HERO The Black & White Movement hails the moral courage of Rodolfo "Jun" Lozada, a great Filipino! Though exhausted, stressed and emotionally drained, Jun showed his strength of character as he told his explosive story. By facing his great fear, he found the heroism to defeat it at great risk to his personal safety and the wellbeing of his family. We have never doubted Jun's resolve to keep telling the truth. We condemn Jun's abduction and his being forced to sign false statements by personnel allegedly sent by DENR Secretary Lito Atienza to protect the administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her husband, First Gentleman Mike Arroyo from involvement in the ZTE-NBN Deal. Only a government with terrible secrets would stoop this low to cover its tracks. Only a government suffused with arrogance and comfortable with impunity would act so brazenly and without conscience. This administration read Jun Lozada totally wrong. GMA's henchmen thought they could silence him with threat and intimidation. That's nincompoop thinking. No one can claim that Jun's statement was malicious, politically motivated or driven by partisan interests. It is clear that his only motivation has been to tell the truth. We thank God for hearing our prayers offered at last night's candle light vigil. We thank Bro. Armin Luistro, fsc, and the AMRSP for their dedication to the care and security of the Lozada family, most of all for the power of their prayers. We thank the media for keeping Jun alive via their constant interest and coverage. Jun's family should also be extolled for their unwavering belief and pride in their brother, husband and father. We exhort the Senate, particularly the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, to resume the ZTE-NBN Deal hearings with dispatch. We are confident that Jun will stand firm under the great pressure that will be brought to bear on him. Jun Lozada is truly made of the right stuff. Mabuhay ka, Jun Lozada! Isa kang tunay na bayaning Pilipino! wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Transcript of the Jun Lozada expose at 2:30 a.m. of February 7, 2008: I'd like to start by thanking a lot of people who expressed their sincere sympathy for the family. I'd like to thank them first, so many of them. And in Tagalog, nagpapasalamat po ako sa lahat ng nagpahayag ng pag-aalala sa akin at sa sampu ng aking pamilya. Ako po'y nagtawag sa pagpupulong na ito upang mabigayan ng liwanag. Madami kasing mga katanungan ang bayan ukol sa proyekto ng NBN-ZTE na ito. At upang huwag na sanang mapilitan pa yung iba, marami nang mabubuting taong napilitan pang magsinungaling dahil sa akin. Hindi naman sila kasama rito, napipilitan pa silang magsinungaling. Ayokong maging dahilan na magkasala sa Diyos at sa bayan kahit sinoman. Ayoko ho iyon. Mabigat po sa aking damdamin ito at isipan, ang aking gagawin. Ngunit kailangan kong gawin ito para sa kaunawaan, para maliwanag na ang isipan ng bayang ito na lubhang makaka-apekto doon sa kinabukasan nila. Ang aking ilalahad na mga salaysay ngayon tungkol sa ZTE-NBN ay yung mga bagay na ako'y may personal na ginampanan, the things that I'm involved with. And I'm going to say this with malice to no one. Wala ho akong malisya kahit kanino man. Ang sasabihin ko ay kung ano lang ginawa namin, at kung ano ang nangyari. Introduced to Abalos To my recollection of events, I'll start off the first time I was introduced to this project by Secretary Neri, monitored action to Chairman Ben Abalos. I guess if it was not late September, early October I was introduced by Secretary Neri to Chairman Ben Abalos in Wack-Wack together with his entourage sina Ruben Reyes�and the ZTE president Yu Yong and Fan Yang. We had lunch in Wack-Wack wherein we talked about the NBN-ZTE. I remember that the Secretary told Chairman Abalos to course his project proposal to the proper channel. NEDA received the first copy sometime in October�prepared by�All questions were referred back to Asec Formoso. When the Secretary gave me a copy for me to review, the first three that really caught my attention, when I was reviewing the financial cost, the financial projection were based on� September 20, 2006 issue wherein they were quoting how much government was spending for telecom expenses� �So, I told the Abalos group, through their guy Leo San Miguel, that they should revise their proposal. They should fix it and try to avoid the education part of it, because there's already a cyber-education project. Abalos wanted $130 million Sometime in November, that was the time that I also met Joey de Venecia, to see the presentation on a similar project but on a BOT basis. And at that time, the Secretary asked me if the project was appropriate for NBN. Until we presented the project proposal for the NBN. And the Secretary asked If I think it was appropriate and I said yes, so he encouraged Joey to push through the project development further. And when the Secretary asked me if there was a synergy between the two projects I said, yes. But both of them were pitching for the same project. The Secretary told me to reconcile the two proponents. And at that point, it was really a good project. At that point, when the Secretary told me to reconcile the two proponents, I immediately went to work and proposed one tool for the two proponents wherein both of them can achieve both of their objectives. Joey's objective was to do a BOT with government, which was completely above board, and then Chairman Abalos's objective was to do a loan, a project on a loan basis. So the project structure that I proposed was that Joey becomes the lead contracting party to the government, it's on a BOT basis anyway. And that Abalos, to achieve his objective of supplying, becomes supplier to Joey's project. I thought at that point it was already a win-win situation for everyone involved. The government gets its NBN project, Joey gets his BOT project, and then Abalos gets his supply comes up. So, at one point I got them already to do their own thing. It's finished. But I guess the trouble started when Chairman Abalos wanted to protect his $130-million� how shall I put this�commission on the project. So dapat daw proteksyonan 'yong $130 million, (before) we agree that Joey become the main proponent. 'Bubukol po ito' At that point, I just felt that�it might be a little too big, in the vernacular sabi ko bubukol po ito, sabi ko siguro kalahati pupuwede. But nonetheless I relayed the information to Joey, because it's going to be Joey's project anyway. And Joey's reaction was really like ballistic, parang he was worried, saan n'ya kukunin itong $130 million na 'to, because the project cost is $262 million, and Abalos wanted $130 million na komisyon. So sabi ko sa kanila, hindi ko problema 'yan, that's your problem. So at that point, I don't know if the listener can realize how much money all of these are na pinag-uusapan�$130 million�At that point, I was telling them na problema n'yo na ito basta you make sure you'll get this thing together because we don't want another Atong Ang or Chavit Singson scandal to rock this country. I also made it very clear...na basta maayos lang. ZTE's advances to Abalos Sometime in December, the ZTE rep, si Yu Yong at saka si Fan Yang, who get quite close to me, along the progress of the work, were already getting frantic and talking to me about developments in the project, because they'd already gave enough advances daw to Chairman Abalos. So, sabi ko sa kanila, the project is moving along, they should not be alarmed. So, it was also at this point because of Joey's hesitance to agree on the $130-million commission, that Chairman Abalos started considering doing the project on his own, deretso na siya. Ang sabi ko ho sa kanya na hindi ho puwedeng de-deretcho kayo, kasi ang kabilin-bilinan ni Secretray Neri, na yun din ata ang utos ng Presidente, na this project can only be done through a BOT basis, hindi puwedeng utang. 'Tawagan natin si FG' So I was standing firm on that, na hindi talaga pupuwede. At that point, that was the time that Chairman Abalos said, halika, tawagan natin si FG. So, sabi niya, nung tinawagan niya, pare nandito yung taga NEDA sa tabi ko, hindi raw puwedeng i-utang yung project ko. I cannot hear the voice from the other end, pero sabi n'ya, kung ganyan kayong kausap, and the Chairman continues, kung ganyan kayong kausap, ang hirap n'yo palang kausap, kalimutan n'yo na lang ang usapan natin. I don't know what that meant. But the following day, totoo nga, a letter from the Chinese ambassador came addressed to the government, and� with Mike, stating that this is already December. 'Moderate their greed' You can check this with the records. I'm just doing this through my own recollection. But if you can check sometime December, a letter addressed to Mike yata, came in from the Chinese ambassador saying that there is now money available for a loan, for the NBN project, independent of the cyber-education project. Kasi yung cyber-education yun ang napag-agree-han na ilo-loan na. Ngayon there's another loan na naman na puwede na rin yung NBN i-loan, it was sometime early December. So, I told the Secretary about it, Secretary Neri. And his instruction to me was very clear, sabi n'ya, Jun, you moderate their greed. I was naive to accept that order. I do not know what moderating greed means, but I followed Secretary Neri. 'Pare, okay na kami sa NEDA' And due to the insistence naman nitong mga taga ZTE that the project gets going, Chairman Abalos invited us sometime on the third week of December, I'm pretty sure of the timing, over dinner in Makati Shang-rila. He asked to invite Joey as well, kasi si FG will be there with us. Actually the First Gentlemen did not say much, except that Chairman Abalos told him na pare okay na kami nina Joey, ok na kami sa NEDA. (and the FG answered) Ah, ganon, mabuti naman, okay na , okay na. So, I'm just narrating to you with no malice intended. Whatever that means, kayo na po ang bahalang umano. And on their trip to China , I did not join them anymore, and I guess Joey can speak omn what happened in China . Like the North Rail Sometime in early January naman, Secretray Neri again invited us for lunch with Abalos in Edsa, in Makati-Shangrila in a Chinese restaurant together with Yu Yong and Fan Yang, the ZTE, and the Chinese commercial councilor. At that point, the Chairman again was making the impression that the project is already a go. May be there was parallel trust�because�(but) it was not yet a go. So there was some negative reaction from the ZTE person, and the Secretary noticed some awkward moments there, and then he immediately ask a leave, and said that he had to go, and asked me to stay behind. Chairman Abalos and the ZTE guy were in curious exchange of words, because the ZTE people were like demanding from Chairman Abalos that he promised that the ZTE deal will be done on a loan project under the North Rail. I don't know why they speak about the North Rail. I don't know why they speak about the North Rail. They keep on mentioning ala North Rail terms loan agreement. 'Alam mo bang�?' So, that was last meeting I had with the Chairman. And on January 18, I remember the date very well. This is the only date that I can remember because this was the date I said bye to the project. I was then in Dumaguete in Negros, together with Henry Teves, when Chairman Abalos called me up, to some like early evening, and asked me questions like, "Alam ba ni Neri yung ginagawa mo, (I said) Opo. Alam ba ni Neri yung ginawa mo. Opo. Alam mo bang malapit ako sa military. Opo. Alam mong malapit ako sa intelligence. Opo. Alam mo namang malapit ako� And then he started cursing. Mura siya nang mura in Tagalog, lahat-lahat. At ang sabi niya, nandito sa akin yung CD lahat ng phone conversations ninyo nina Joey, mga hayop kayo, tina-traydor n'yo ko. I don't know what gave him that impression..but the fact, that they said I know the week 17 in ISAPF can do that, which Chairman Abalos and Ruben Reyes are �close to, I was not surprised. So, I just took with a grain, and then Chairman Abalos ended up�his words with, "Huwag kang magpapakita sa aking hayop ka sa Wack �Wack o sa Mandaluyong at ipapapatay kita." That's when all my troubles started. So, I quit the project. I told the Secretary that I don;lt think this project is worth risking my life for. All I did was trying to help the Secretary understand it. So on February 2007, the executive order was issued. So this is now my personal participation ended and where it ended for the project concept. From $262M to $329M In February 2007, an EO was issued by the Office of the President, transferring the telos, the implementing agency to DOTC. And on April, the project� the NBN was approved�at $329 million. When I quit the project, the project cost was $262 million. So it was approved. I don't know what happened then. I'm not imputing anything now. But when it was approved, it was already approved at $329 million. And the day after it was approved, the President together with PagCor officials, went to China to witness the signing of the agreement. This project for me is one transactional example of a dysfunctional government procurement, a systemic dysfunction on how we procure projects. There are other more that have escaped scrutiny, but ganun din ang sistema. And I have agonized over this decision... Ang dasal ko lang sana maintindihan n'yo yung dusang dinananas ng pamilya ko ngayon. Ang dasal ko lang sana matutunan na natin after nito na ang salitang Pilipino ay hindi lang tumutkoy sa isang pamilya. Ang salitang Pilipino ay tumutukoy sa isang bansa, ang bansang Pilipino. And sometimes, it's worth taking a risk for this country. -- Shared by William M. Esposo OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |