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Administration Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago accused
Amsterdam Holdings Inc. (AHI) cofounder Jose De Venecia
III of fronting for a group that aims to “remove
President Arroyo before 2010. . . .This must be a very
expensive campaign.”
In a
late press meeting Tuesday,
Santiago
questioned the motives of de Venecia for his “claimed
exposé” that Mike Arroyo, the President’s husband, has
lobbied for the approval of the questioned $330-million
deal with ZTE Corp., a state-owned firm of China, for
the national broadband network (NBN).
She said
that de Venecia, whose company made the original
unsolicited bid for the NBN but was rejected although
it was much lower in price, must focus on the failure of
the bidding and not destroy the credibility of
high-ranking officials that include Mike Arroyo.
“He lost
the bidding, so the normal reaction is to ask for a
rebidding,” said Santiago. “His claim is very bizarre,
his behavior is unorthodox and goes against the brain of
human nature.”
She
apparently believes there was a bidding, but there was
none. Precisely, it was the contention of de Venecia
that having made the unsolicited offer, it must be
subjected to a Swiss challenge.
Santiago
said she would question his motive when the Senate Blue
Ribbon Committee resumes investigation into the alleged
anomalous contract with ZTE on Thursday.
Lakas
Rep. Prospero Nograles of
Davao defended the President and her husband, meanwhile,
saying the First Couple should not be prejudged as
investigation has just been started.
“He
stated very clearly that PGMA is not involved. He also
said clearly that First Gentleman Mike Arroyo was also
not ‘personally’ involved in the NBN-ZTE deal and
probably only tried to pacify the conflicting parties
who had an ongoing media war, and to ‘back off’ because
Joey’s company had already lost the deal to ZTE,” said
Nograles.
Nograles
said the public should just wait for the Supreme Court’s
final decision on the ZTE deal controversy.
Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino Rep. Ignacio Arroyo of
Negros Occidental decried speculations his brother
intentionally left the country because he knew that he
will be implicated in the controversy, saying that his
trip to Spain has long been planned.
Party-list Rep. Liza Maza of Gabriela said the
involvement of Mr. Arroyo was not exactly surprising,
although it raises more questions than answers on the
controversial contract. “This is not the first time that
Mr. Arroyo’s name cropped up in a multi-billion-peso
scandal since Mrs. Arroyo became President. This is
hardly coincidence. Mr. Arroyo is now worth P16-17B in
scandals.”
Party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño of Bayan Muna said that
“if the mystery man is Mr. Arroyo, it doesn’t take too
much to conclude who the mystery woman is.” |
