Reporter

SENATE investigators are tapping Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) to follow the money trail of the alleged $41-million kickbacks advanced in three tranches by China’s Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment Co. Ltd. to Arroyo administration officials and cronies for the aborted $329- million national broadband network (NBN) deal.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Thursday moved to invoke the Philippine government’s Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty with Hong Kong to verify walk-in witness Dante Madriaga’s testimony that fund transfers of $1 million, $10 million and $30 million were paid by ZTE to Ruben Reyes, a golfing crony of former elections chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr., through a still untraced HK bank account.

Pimentel earlier prodded Chinese authorities to delist ZTE from the HK Stock Exchange for refusing to cooperate in the ongoing inquiry into the anomalous broadband project.

In a separate interview, Lacson indicated he intends to also tap his contacts in Hong Kong’s Icac to find out more details about the bank account used to transfer the $41-million kickbacks allegedly paid by ZTE after bagging the broadband contract last year.

“We can tap [HK graft-busters], meron tayong MLAT with HK,” Lacson told reporters. “Titingnan ko kung makontak ko iyong dating contacts ko sa HK,” he added, recalling that Icac investigators successfully tracked down alleged money-laundering activities involving a separate $2-million kickback allegedly paid to former justice secretary Hernani Perez  for a power contract with an Argentine company when the money passed through a Hong Kong account.

This developed as Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. assured that the Senate would carefully scrutinize and validate the testimony of Madriaga, a self-described ZTE insider who claimed to have worked as consultant for costing and design of the NBN project.

“We are duty-bound to cross-check and validate even the minutest details of the testimony of a witness, whether he is from the private sector or from the government,” Villar said, adding that, “facts, dates, will be verified so we will know if the missing pieces of the puzzle fit.”

At the same time, Sen. Mar Roxas II suggested that the Antimoney Laundering Council (AMLC) should likewise move to confirm Madriaga’s claim that the alleged fund transfers were made after Philippine officials awarded the broadband project to ZTE of China.

Roxas recommended that the Senate joint committee investigating the anomalous NBN project formally request the AMLC to verify the amounts supposedly moved offshore, the dates of the said transfers and the names involved, as revealed by Madriaga.

“We appreciate the testimony of engineer Madriaga as to the amount of cash that changed hands as part of the NBN mess. But in order to build a stronger case, we need documentary evidence,” Roxas said.

In his testimony during Tuesday’s hearing, Madriaga, who allegedly served as a ZTE local consultant from May 2006 to March 2007, identified President Arroyo and her husband, Miguel Arroyo, businessmen Ruben Reyes and Leo San Miguel, retired policeman Quirino de la Torre and Abalos as among the major players in the anomalous broadband project.

Meanwhile, Tomas Alcantara, chairman of the Alcantara Group of Companies, denied the allegation that he is involved in oil smuggling.

Alcantara took exception to the testimony of Angelito Banayo, former Philippine Tourism Authority chief under the Estrada administration, who said in a Senate inquiry that he remembered former socioeconomic planning secretary Romulo Neri allegedly mention in a meeting held sometime last December at AIM Bistro in the presence of Rodolfo Lozada Jr., Senator Lacson, Sen. Jamby Madrigal and their staff members that Alcantara was the person behind the initials TA, which Neri had included in his chart as involved in oil smuggling.

“Ridiculous! I have absolutely no involvement in any form of illegal activity, much less oil smuggling. If Secretary Neri or anyone, including Mister Lozada or Mister Banayo, have any proof to the contrary, I demand that they come out with it in the open, instead of resorting to hearsay, innuendo and trial by publicity, so that I can defend myself in the proper forum, the media included,” Alcantara said.

He lamented the circumstances by which his person has been dragged into the controversy regarding alleged corruption in the government amid the ZTE deal Senate investigation. “I really do not know why Secretary Neri would include my name on the list of national oligarchs he accuses of controlling the country’s economy. I wish he would clarify what he meant by including my name in his list as well as other prominent members of the Philippine business community,” Alcantara added.

Terrorists threaten to disrupt Friday rally

THE military warned on Thursday against the possibility of terrorist groups’ sowing violence during Friday’s expected rally of anti-Arroyo groups in Makati City.

SENATE investigators are tapping Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) to follow the money trail of the alleged $41-million kickbacks advanced in three tranches by China’s Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment Co. Ltd. to Arroyo administration officials and cronies for the aborted $329- million national broadband network (NBN) deal.

THE conflicting statements of President Arroyo and her aides on the botched national broadband project only served to reinforce the suspicions that contract was tainted with fraud which they are trying to cover up, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said on Thursday.

THE Delegation of the European Commission (EC) in the Philippines has set out indicative priorities in the country for the next four years under the €61-million (P3.66 billion) development cooperation programs focusing on sustainable reduction of poverty.

MRS. EDITHA BURGOS on Thursday presented before the Court of Appeals (CA), which is hearing her petition for writ of amparo, a confidential report of the Philippine Army (PA) showing that her son Jonas, a suspected member of the communist New People’s Army (NPA), “has been neutralized.”

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) investigators have absolved the soldiers accused of killing eight people in a coastal village of Sulu on February 4, a military official disclosed.

ZAMBOANGA CITY—The Army commander, Lt. Gen. Alexander Yano, said the investigation for alleged corruption of a senior military official will be completed in a few days.