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THE
President’s husband, Mike Arroyo, was tagged on Tuesday
as the “mystery man” involved in the allegedly anomalous
$330-million contract for the government’s national
broadband network (NBN) project with China’s ZTE Corp.
During
the Senate blue-ribbon committee hearing on Tuesday,
Amsterdam Holdings Inc. (AHI) cofounder Jose de Venecia
III said that at one point, Arroyo pointed “an accusing
finger” at him and told him to “back off” from the
controversial broadband deal.
The
younger De Venecia earlier exposed that the project was
overpriced by 100 percent, or $130 million. He named
Chairman Benjamin Abalos of the Commission on Elections
(Comelec) as the one “championing” the deal with ZTE as
the latter stands to “receive for himself huge amounts
of kickbacks from the colossal overpricing of the NBN
project.”
Arroyo
flew to Hong Kong late Monday.
“It is
with a heavy heart that I cannot deny that it was First
Gentleman Mike Arroyo at the reconciliatory meeting. I
do, however, want to make clear that it was his presence
alone that I observed, and I have no indication of his
participation in the NBN project or the deal with ZTE,”
said de Venecia in his testimony.
De
Venecia said he saw Arroyo during a “reconciliatory
meeting” arranged by Communications Secretary Leandro
Mendoza at the Wack-Wack Golf and Country Club in
Mandalu-yong City in mid-March this year.
Sen.
Alan Peter Cayetano, chairman of the blue-ribbon
committee investigating the allegedly anomalous deal
with ZTE, announced that people who were allegedly
present during the meeting in Wack-Wack would be
subpoenaed to appear in the next hearing on Thursday.
Cayetano
said: “A lot of circumstances showed that President
Arroyo knew more about the contract, but bribery remains
a mystery,” said Cayetano in an interview after the
hearing. He stressed: “The question remains why
President Arroyo keeps on pushing for the broadband
contract ZTE despite claims that it is overpriced and
disadvantageous to the government.”
De
Venecia said that also present at the meeting were
Abalos’s chief of staff Jimmy Paz as well as persons
identified as Ruben Reyes, Leo San Miguel and retired
police general Edgar Dula Torre.
De
Venecia said AHI was being wooed to partner with the ZTE
to push through with the deal after Abalos learned that
it was his company that was being considered by the
Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC)
and the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).
The son
of the Speaker admitted that he was initially convinced
and even flew to China, to push through with the AHI
partnership with ZTE. “It was there that I found out
that the ZTE proposal was, as early as then, overpriced
by 100 percent, or $130 million, to accommodate the
advances and kickbacks to be received by this powerful
person [whom he later identified as Abalos]”.
The
partnership offered to AHI came with a $10-million bribe
allegedly offered by Abalos, said de Venecia.
But
later, de Venecia told his business colleagues at the
AHI that he rejected Abalos’s offer to partner with ZTE
Corp. prompting the elections chief to threaten to have
him killed along with a newspaper columnist.
The
meeting in Wack Wack in mid- March called by Secretary
Mendoza was supposed to reconcile the young de Venecia
and Abalos.
During
the meeting, de Venecia said he was approached by the
elections chief and told him: “Joey, I forgive you for
your sins.”
But de
Venecia said he insisted on explaining to the
President’s husband that the ZTE contract was
disadvantageous to the government and should be junked.
He also explained that the AHI proposal is at no cost to
the government.
At this
point, de Venecia said that Arroyo, who was standing
barely three inches away from him, said that the
President’s husband pointed an accusing finger and told
him to “back off.”
De
Venecia said he continued to explain his side on the
anomalous ZTE deal but the President’s husband “refused
to listen, stood up and left me.”
Government officials who snubbed the investigation into
the ZTE deal include Mendoza, Trade Secretary Peter
Favila, former National Economic and Development
Authority director general and now chairman of the
Commission on Higher Education Romulo Neri and Assistant
Secretary for Transportation Lorenzo Formoso. |
