|
SENATE
probers looking into alleged anomalies in the aborted
$329-million national broadband network (NBN) project
awarded to Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment Co.
Ltd. (ZTE) of China were asked to summon ZTE chairman Fu
Yong, as well as commercial attaché Fan Yang of the
Chinese Embassy in Manila, to shed light on the
participation of the Chinese government in the
controversial NBN-ZTE deal.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. moved to
invite the two Chinese officials after former
Socioeconomic Planning chief Romulo Neri’s
telecommunications consultant,Rodolfo Lozada Jr.,
testified that the ZTE contract to put up the broadband
network was grossly overpriced, and that up to $130
million of the submitted project cost would go to former
Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin
Abalos as “commission.”
Abalos has vehemently denied the
allegation, and his camp was reportedly mulling over the
filing of a libel case over the claim.
Pimentel made the suggestion for the
Senate blue-ribbon committee to subpoena ZTE chairman
Fu and commercial attaché Fan on the eve of Monday’s
resumption of the marathon hearings.
Personalities who had nothing to do with
the NBN-ZTE scandal but were dragged into the fray after
Lozada claimed he was “abducted” by government
agents
on his return home from
Hong Kong on February 5 have been summoned to attend as well the Monday hearing.
They are Environment Secretary Lito Atienza, the boss of
Lozada (Philippine Forest Corp., or PFC, where Lozada is
chief is under the DENR); and National Police chief
Avelino Razon Jr.
Fan Yang, Senator Pimentel said, should
shed his diplomatic immunity, if any. “If they refuse to
appear before the Senate, the government should deport
Fu and declare Fan persona non grata.”
Pimentel recalled that the blue-ribbon
committee, which is conducting the inquiry with the
Committees on Trade and Commerce and on Defense, had
issued an earlier invitation to Mr. Fu to give the ZTE’s
side in the joint hearings, but process servers from the
Office of the Senate Sergeant at Arms could not locate
the Chinese businessman.
In Friday’s hearing, Lozada said the ZTE
packaged the NBN deal out of their Hong Kong office, not
in the Philippines.
Abalos’s
role in focus
Pimentel
said probers are also keen on questioning both Fu Yong
and Fan Yang about allegations that Abalos had already
received a portion of his $130-million commission from
ZTE “even before its project proposal was approved by
the Philippine government.”
In his separate testimony at the Senate,
businessman Jose de Venecia III, who represents losing
bidder Amsterdam Holdings Corp., also testified that the
former Comelec chairman had been brokering for the ZTE
in exchange for a hefty commission.
According to Pimentel, the testimony
given by Lozada at last week’s marathon hearing has
bolstered the filing of graft and corruption charges
against Abalos for “brokering a grossly overpriced
government project.”
Pimentel prodded Ombudsman Merceditas
Gutierrez to go ahead with the criminal prosecution of
Abalos even as he urged the chief graft prosecutor “not
sleep on the case, as was done in the graft case filed
against the former Comelec chief by the Akbayan
party-list group last year.”
Lozada told the Senate that the NBN
contract awarded to China’s ZTE was originally priced at
$264 million, of which half or $130 million allegedly
represented Abalos’ commission.
But Lozada, who evaluated the ZTE
project proposal as a personal consultant of Neri, said
he was shocked on learning that the cost of the contract
had ballooned to $329 million when it was signed by
Philippine and Chinese government officials in April
2007.
Ombudsman prodded
“Lozada’s testimony affirms Neri’s testimony about the
irregularities in the transaction and gives the
Ombudsman enough ground to sue Abalos for graft. His
resignation will not give him legal respite until he has
a chance in court to clear his soiled name,” said
Pimentel.
Lozada had also confirmed De Venecia’s
allegation that Abalos dangled a P200-million bribe to
Neri in exchange for the approval of the ZTE proposal by
the Neda-Investment Coordination Committee.
Pimentel said Lozada provided the
“missing link” to the puzzle on why President Arroyo
reversed her original decision to have the broadband
project pursued through the build-operate-transfer (BOT)
scheme in favor of the proposal being pushed by Abalos
that would be funded by a government-guaranteed loan
from China Export-Import Bank.
‘Watch
Cha-cha’
Meanwhile, Makati Mayor and United Opposition (UNO)
president Jejomar Binay on Sunday traced the origin of
the NBN scandal to the May 2004 presidential election
and the “transactional arrangements” made to ensure an
Arroyo victory over opposition bet Fernando Poe Jr.
“The magnitude of the greed exposed by
Jun Lozada is simply mind-boggling. What he has exposed
is greed that is beyond moderation, for it is greed that
is driven by arrogance. It is greed that feeds on the
reciprocal arrangements entered into to ensure the
victory of Mrs. Arroyo in 2004. It is favor given in
exchange for favor asked,” he said.
The opposition had described the 2004
presidential elections as tainted by fraud and cheating,
an allegation boosted by the recorded conversations
between Mrs. Arroyo and former Comelec commissioner
Virgilio Garcillano exposed in 2005.
Addressing officials of the PDP-Laban at
the clubhouse of the Philippine Racing Commission, Binay
called on the party to oppose any move to change the
Constitution under the present administration. Binay is
the party’s national president.
“Just imagine what would happen if Mrs.
Arroyo succeeds in securing for herself a mandate to
rule the Philippines forever and ever,” he said.
He cited persistent attempts by Arroyo
allies to amend the Constitution either through a
constituent assembly or people’s initiative. He added
that the country should not discount reported plans to
resort to martial law if only to achieve the objective
of extending Mrs. Arroyo’s rule.
Binay dismissed observations that the
Arroyo administration would eventually shun corruption
and focus instead on governance in its remaining years
in office.
DOJ
probe serious
Relatedly, Malacañang on Sunday denied allegations that
the Department of Justice probe on the scrapped
broadband network deal with ZTE is part of government
efforts to discredit Lozada.
Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Lorelei
Fajardo said in a statement that President Arroyo’s
ordered investigation on the controversial deal is
intended to pinpoint those who might have violated
antigraft and procurement laws in relation to the
project.
She also brushed aside the suspicion of
Sen. Panfilo Lacson that Malacañang had furnished Sen.
Miriam Santiago with incriminating information on Lozada
during his stint as PFC president.
“Senator Santiago cannot be dictated on
by anyone. Ours is a nation governed by laws, not by
men,” Fajardo said.
She also took exception to the claim of
opposition senators that Malacañang is doing a
demolition job on Lozada. “When the opposition does a
demolition job against the government, they say they are
just bringing out the truth. When the government bares
embarrassing truths about the opposition, they call it
a demolition job. We must tell people the truth about
Lozada so they will know what is really behind his
accusations and claims,” Fajardo said.
In another statement coursed through
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, Chief Presidential
Counsel Sergio Apostol apologized to the
Filipino-Chinese community for making an “unintended
slur” against them while responding to Lozada’s claims
linking the President’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, to
the ZTE deal.
Apostol had joked that the former should
be deported for “making trouble” as a probinsiyanong
Intsik, a phrase Lozada himself had earlier used to
describe himself while testifying in the Senate hearing.
Apostol’s joke irked some members of the
Filipino-Chinese community.
Bishops
weigh in
The
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP),
meanwhile, said the public confession of former House
Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. and Lozada on the extent of
corruption in government may be considered an act of God
that may even salvage the country from long-term
offenses against the common good.
In a statement Sunday, the CBCP through
its president, Iloilo Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, praised
Lozada and de Venecia for their courage to expose the
“high level of graft and corruption that they knew all
along and somehow have been involved in.” |
