Romulo Neri Gets Frustrated With President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

Commission on Higher Education Chairman Romulo Neri admitted Tuesday that he got frustrated with his "boss" sometimes, but insisted that he still believe President Arroyo is the only one who can initiate reforms needed to stamp out the deep-rooted corruption problem in the country."In our job, we have frustrations. Hindi natin maiiwasan na paminsan-minsan (We can't avoid sometimes) we get upset with our boss," Neri told ABS-CBN's morning show, "Umagang Kay Ganda."He added that if had lost faith in the President, he would not be in the government right now. "Up to this time I really think we can do reforms under the President."He had repeatedly said that he doesn’t trust the Congress, the military, and civil society groups including the Black and White Movement to lead in the reforms against corruption.Instead of trying to oust Mrs. Arroyo, Neri said the society should "really have to back [Mrs. Arroyo] up in these reforms."Neri came with the statements after his friend, Rodolfo Noel "Jun" Lozada Jr. told the Senate that the CHED chairman once described Mrs. Arroyo as an evil person.Lozada said Neri uttered the words "She is evil" while lecturing senators Panfilo "Ping" Lacson and Ma. Consuelo "Jamby" Madrigal about the "ecosystem of corruption" in the country.The lecture was done during a dinner meeting at the Asian Institute of Management building in Makati City last Dec. 7, 2007, Lozada said.The Senate witness said that based on Neri's diagram, Mrs. Arroyo was in the center of the deep-rooted corruption problem of the country.Neri denied Lozada's claim, explaining that his diagram showed the different players of corruption."If you look at the framework. Each person has a role, different players. The Senate, [ousted speaker] Jose de Venecia Jr., Congress, the Church, media are there. Everything that has relevance," he said.'No need to apologize, Jun'The CHED chairman maintained that he was not planning to leave Mrs. Arroyo's administration and was seeking an alliance with Lacson and Madrigal, who had been labeled by the administration as destabilizers, during the dinner meeting.He said he was only accompanying Lozada who was then still scared of appearing at the Senate's hearing on the allegedly overpriced $329-million national broadband network deal.He added that he just took a chance to woo the two senators into supporting his advocacy and presented his corruption diagram to them.Despite denying Lozada's testimony about his description of Mrs. Arroyo, he said he remains a friend of the Senate witness."Jun and I will remain friends. Jun, there is really no need to apologize. I saw what you went through," he said, addressing Lozada who tried to apologize first before revealing details of their supposed secret dinner meeting with Lacson and Madrigal.He also scored senators for trying to take away his friendship with Lozada. "Somehow his career is gone, his sense of personal security. One of the things that we treasure, we treasure this friendship."