NERI AS QUOTED BY LOZADA:
‘Moderate their greed’
Instruction refers to Mike Arroyo, Abalos
By Nikko Dizon
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:44:00 02/08/2008
Filed Under: Government Contracts, Graft & Corruption, NBN deal
MANILA, Philippines -- From being a technical consultant to the National Broadband Network (NBN) project, Rodolfo Noel “Jun” Lozada Jr. found himself assigned to “moderate" the "greed” of the greedy.
Lozada was taken into police custody on Tuesday night at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) after returning from Hong Kong, in what police officials said was a move to protect him.
Surrounded by a group of nuns, he resurfaced at La Salle Green Hills in Mandaluyong City shortly before midnight Wednesday, apparently tired, weary and anxious.
At a press conference that began at 2:30 a.m. Thursday, Lozada said former Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. got a $130-million commission from the NBN contract and coordinated with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s husband, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, on the broadband project.
“I guess the trouble started when Chairman Abalos wanted to protect his $130 million ... How shall I put this? Commission on the project,” Lozada narrated, taking a brief pause before saying the word “commission.”
Lozada said the NBN project was just one example of “dysfunctional government procurement, a systemic dysfunction of how we procure projects.”
“There are others more that have escaped scrutiny,” he said.
By Lozada’s account, Abalos, then Comelec chair, had a direct line to the President’s husband, assuring him that Abalos’ proposal for a loan agreement with China for the NBN project was going to be approved by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).
The NBN project sought to link electronically government offices nationwide.
Jose “Joey” de Venecia III, who blew the whistle on the $329-million contract for the NBN project awarded to China’s ZTE Corp., told a Senate hearing last year that Abalos had brokered the ZTE deal in exchange for a huge commission.
At another Senate hearing last year, De Venecia, whose company had offered to undertake the project for $242 million but lost the contract to ZTE, said Mike Arroyo had been promised $70 million in commission from the ZTE deal.
Missing link
Lozada has emerged as a key witness in the scandal that exploded last year when the President’s husband was implicated in the inquiry.
Opposition senators believe Lozada may be the missing link in their effort to prove the President and her husband were involved in approving the deal, which was eventually scrapped.
Abalos quit as Comelec chair after the scandal broke last year. He has refused to comment on Lozada’s latest accusation that he issued death threats against him.
Lozada said that when he was a consultant to the NBN project, it cost only $262 million. This was the amount first offered by ZTE in its initial proposal to undertake the project under a government-to-government loan agreement.
For reasons he did not know because he had quit his consultancy job, the NBN project cost later ballooned to $329 million.
In April last year, the President and other government officials flew to China to witness the signing of the $329-million contract between the Philippine government and ZTE Corp., a state-owned telecommunications firm listed on the Shenzen and Hong Kong stock exchanges.
At one point when it was clear that Abalos was not going to clinch the NBN project for ZTE by himself, Lozada said the former Comelec chair threatened to have him killed.
He said a fuming Abalos also claimed he had a CD of his (Lozada’s) wiretapped phone conversations with Joey, a son and namesake of Pangasinan Rep. Jose de Venecia Jr., who days ago was ousted as Speaker in a campaign spearheaded by the President’s congressmen-sons, Juan Miguel and Diosdado.
Breakdown
Although he spoke with certitude on his participation in and knowledge of the project, Lozada broke down at least twice in his 30-minute narration of events.
“These are the things that I’m involved with and I’m going to say this with malice to no one,” Lozada said, controlling his sobs.
He apologized to the public for signing an affidavit in which there was “an item (that said) I did not speak of the ZTE-NBN deal (with) any government official.”
Lozada, who resigned Thursday as president and CEO of state-owned Philippine Forest Corp., said he was introduced by then NEDA Director General Romulo Neri to Abalos at a lunch meeting at Wack Wack subdivision in Mandaluyong City in late September or early October 2006.
Abalos’ “usual entourage” and ZTE representatives were also present, Lozada said.
“We had lunch at Wack Wack wherein we talked about the NBN-ZTE project and the good secretary (Neri) asked me to help him to understand what this whole project was all about,” Lozada said.
He also recalled that Neri had told Abalos “to course his project proposal through the proper channels.”
Having been tapped by Neri to be a consultant to the NBN project, Lozada said the NEDA in October 2006 received the first copy of the first version of the Commission on Information and Communication Technology’s feasibility study prepared by ZTE.
Projections based on tabloid
“When (Neri) gave me a copy for me to review, the first thing that really caught my attention when I was reviewing the financial projection (was that it was) based on the Abante Tonite, Sept. 20, 2006, issue, wherein they were quoting how much government was spending for telecom expenses,” Lozada said.
He said he “found it funny then that a multibillion [peso] project was based on data reference from a tabloid.”
Lozada said he told the Abalos group to revise its proposal and try to avoid the education part because there was already an education project, referring to the Cyber Education Project.
In November 2006, Neri introduced Lozada to the younger De Venecia who presented his company’s project proposal for the NBN.
“(Neri) asked me if it was appropriate and I said ‘Yes.’ So he encouraged Joey to pursue the project development further,” Lozada said.
Lozada recalled that he answered in the affirmative when Neri asked him “if there was synergy between the two projects... but both of them were pitching for the same project.”
Neri ordered him “to reconcile the two proponents,” Lozada said, describing the NBN project at that point as “a really good project.”
Lozada said he proposed a structure in which both De Venecia and Abalos “can achieve their objectives.”
In the Lozada proposal, De Venecia becomes the lead contracting party because his was a build-operate-transfer (BOT) scheme while Abalos, who had proposed a loan agreement for the NBN project with ZTE, would become the supplier to De Venecia’s project.
“I thought at that point that it was already a win-win situation for everyone involved,” Lozada said.
Instead, it was going to be the beginning of Lozada’s travails.
Abalos apparently did not agree because his alleged multimillion-dollar commission had to be protected.
Being a consultant to the project, Lozada said he told Abalos that the amount “might be a little too big.”
“In the vernacular, sabi ko, bubukol po ito. Sabi ko, siguro kalahati pupuwede (I said, it would swell [too costly]. Maybe half would be possible)” Lozada recounted telling Abalos.
When he relayed the information to De Venecia, Lozada recalled the latter went “really ballistic like he was worried.”
Describing De Venecia’s reaction, Lozada said it apparently meant: “Where will he get this $130 million because the project cost is $262 million and Abalos wanted $130 million in commission?”
Enough advances to Abalos
Lozada also told De Venecia that the latter and Abalos had to “fix” the problem between them because he (Lozada) did not want another “Atong Ang, Chavit Singson scandal to rock this country.”
(It was Singson who revealed in 2000 that then President Joseph Estrada was receiving payoffs from operators of jueteng, an illegal numbers game. His revelation led to the impeachment and ouster of Estrada. Ang was Estrada’s gambling partner.)
Around December 2006, Lozada recalled that ZTE representatives Yu Yong and Fan Yang, “who had become close to me during the progress of the work, were already getting frantic and talking to me about developments in the project because it (ZTE) had already given enough advances to Chairman Abalos.”
But Lozada said he assured the ZTE representatives “that the project (was) moving along so they should not be alarmed.”
Because of De Venecia’s “hesitance” in agreeing to Abalos’ multimillion-dollar commission, the then Comelec chair began to consider the “project on his own” and deal with it directly, according to Lozada.
But Lozada said he reminded Abalos that he could not do this because according to Neri, Ms Arroyo had instructed that the NBN project be done as a BOT and not through a loan agreement.
Call Ms Arroyo’s husband
It was at this point that Abalos told him that he (Abalos) was going to call up the President’s husband, according to Lozada.
“Chairman Abalos said ‘Come, we’ll call FG’... He called him up. He said, ‘Pare, someone from NEDA, who is beside me, claims that my project could not be undertaken using a loan,’” Lozada said.
Lozada said that while he could not hear the voice on the other end of the line, he heard Abalos tell that person “... Ang hirap nyo palang kausap. Kalimutan nyo na lahat ng usapan natin (It’s difficult to talk to you. Let’s forget everything we had talked about).”
Lozada said he did not know what that statement meant but the next day, he found out that in December 2006, the Chinese ambassador had sent a letter saying there was already “money available for the NBN project.”
Lozada said he told Neri about the letter.
Neri’s instruction, Lozada said, “was very clear.”
“He said, ‘Jun, you moderate their greed.’ I was naive to accept that offer. I do not know what moderating greed means but I followed Secretary Neri,” Lozada said.
Makati Shangri-La meeting
The same month, Lozada said, Abalos invited him to a dinner at the Makati Shangri-La hotel and told him that Mike Arroyo would also be present.
Lozada said Arroyo did not say much during dinner. Abalos nevertheless told him: “Pare, we’re OK with Joey... We’re OK with NEDA.”
The President’s husband simply replied “OK,” Lozada said.
Lozada said he did not have direct discussions with the President’s husband on the NBN project.
“I want to make that very clear. The only time we were really seated together was that dinner at Makati Shangri-La. I just know that Abalos, for some reason, would talk to him about this project. So they are the ones talking. You have to ask Chairman Abalos about the First Gentleman,” Lozada said.
He added: “As I narrated a while ago, he (Abalos) called up the First Gentleman to make sure that there would be a loan facility for the NBN.”
Last meeting
Lozada said a lunch meeting that included him, Abalos, Neri and the ZTE representatives followed in January 2007.
“At that point, (Abalos) again was giving the impression that the project was already a go. Maybe there was a parallel track because from our end, it was not yet a go,” Lozada said.
A lá NorthRail project
When Neri left the room because there were “some awkward moments,” Abalos and the ZTE representatives had a “furious exchange of words,” Lozada said.
“The ZTE people were like demanding from Chairman Abalos that he promised that the ZTE deal will be done on a loan project a lá the NorthRail (project). I don’t know what about the NorthRail. They kept on mentioning a lá the NorthRail loan agreement,” Lozada said. (NorthRail refers to the rail project financed through a $400-million loan from China. It will rehabilitate the 32.2-kilometer line from Caloocan City to Malolos, Bulacan.)
It would be Lozada’s last meeting with Abalos.
Lozada said that on Jan. 18, 2007, he received an angry call from Abalos.
Lozada said Abalos asked him if Neri knew about his (Lozada’s) actions and that he (Abalos) was close to the military and the intelligence community.
To all the questions, Lozada said he answered: “Opo (Yes, sir).”
“Then he started cursing. He kept on cursing in Tagalog,” Lozada said.
Taped conversations
Abalos supposedly also warned him that he had a CD of all his (Lozada’s) phone conversation with Joey de Venecia and yelled, “Mga hayop kayo, tinatraydor nyo ako (You’re animals, you’re double-crossing me).”
“Chairman Abalos ended his tirade with the words ‘Huwag kang magpapakita sa akin, hayop ka, sa Wack Wack o sa Mandaluyong at ipapapatay kita! (Don’t let me see you, you animal, at Wack Wack or in Mandaluyong. I will have you killed),’” Lozada said.
Worth risking life
Lozada said he quit the NBN project that same day and told Neri it was not something worth risking his life for.
He said he “agonized” over his decision to tell all about the NBN project.
He said he did not want to speak “along partisan lines.”
In fact, he said, he did not want to be a witness at the Senate hearing on the ZTE deal. His superiors in the government suggested that he go to Hong Kong when the Senate threatened to arrest him.
Lozada said: “I’m praying that we learn after this that the term Filipino does not refer to one family. It refers to one country, one Filipino nation. And sometimes it’s worth taking a risk for this country.”
Then Lozada wept.
|
