(Capsulized Separate Concurring and Dissenting Opinion* on the NBN-ZTE Committee Report)

Prologue

THIS hearing is unprecedented—possibly the longest inquiry, two years, that a Senate committee or a tricommittee has ever undertaken.

The transcript alone of the stenographic notes on the hearing is 1 ½ feet high.

The exhibits presented consist of 18 folders.

Forty-one witnesses testified in 13 sessions.

On and off, the hearings started on September 18, 2007, and was terminated on September 1, 2009. 

While the investigation was going on, incidental matters were elevated to the Supreme Court when the Executive and the Senate were deadlocked on the extent and limit of each other’s reach and power.

DAVAO CITY—At 14, Anne is too young to be worrying about getting pregnant or acquiring AIDS. That is why she uses a condom whenever she has a customer.  She has become so good at it that the latter ”does not even have to know that he has been sheathed,” she says.

”We’ve been taught how,” says Anne (not her real name), who, when she turned 13, was recruited to work in a bar in Sto. Tomas, Davao del Norte, host to banana plantation workers and penal colony guards on rest and recreation and located more than 60 kilometers north of Davao City a major metropolis in southeastern Mindanao.

Every day I see a slew of new stories in the media about leaders committing billions to new technologies or other acquisitions to demonstrate how serious they are about innovation and growth. For instance, The Wall Street Journal recently published a story about the more than $3 billion that the Obama administration has committed to smart grid initiatives (“Get Smart: Team Obama’s $3 Billion Smart Grid Push,” October 27, 2009).