MJ’s return to spell trouble for GMA?

Former Manila Rep. Mark Jimenez, who is due to return to the country on Nov. 21 after months of imprisonment in the United States, could spell trouble for the embattled Arroyo administration, Cavite Rep. Jesus Crispin Remulla said yesterday.

"MJ could explode more bombshells against this administration upon his return," Remulla, former spokesman for ousted President Joseph Estrada, told reporters.

He said Jimenez should talk about the controversial $350-million contract for the rehabilitation of the Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan (CBK) power plant in Laguna that the former Manila congressman claimed he brokered with a company in Argentina during the Estrada administration.

Malacañang however was not worried by Jimenez’s return next month. Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said "human nature" would dictate that Jimenez would not immediately launch a tirade against the administration considering that he was just freed from a US prison.

"If I were former congressman Mark Jimenez, I would have to rethink my stance when I return" Ermita said, "considering the circumstances when he left the country to face the charges in the US were such that he was known to be very critical of the administration."

"I don’t think he wants to come home and be adversarial at once and become a controversial figure again, so I don’t think that is something we should worry about," he said.

Remulla said incumbent and former officials of the Arroyo administration must be worried about the impending return of Jimenez.

The CBK project spanned three administrations, but it was the government of President Arroyo that gave the final go-signal to the contractor through a ruling by then Justice Secretary Hernando Perez. The ruling was issued less than a week after Mrs. Arroyo took over from Estrada in January 2001.

There were reports then that Jimenez received a $14-million commission for brokering the contract and that a huge part of the money went to Estrada and Arroyo administration officials. — Jess Diaz, Paolo Romero