MANILA, Philippines -- A marginal note on a classified document dealing with the controversial National Broadband Network (NBN) project seemed telling: The note read ?Copy for FG.?
Holding up a copy of the document at the Senate hearing Tuesday, administration critic Sen. Jamby Madrigal said: ?It is important for us to know ... who this FG is.?
?Is it First Goon, First Gangster or First Gentleman?? Madrigal said.
Amid denials by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?s husband, Jose Miguel ?Mike? Arroyo, that he had anything to do with the now scrapped deal with China?s ZTE Corp., the question arises: Why would there be a need to provide him with a copy of the document?
The document in Madrigal?s hands was a copy of a March 29, 2007, letter of Romulo Neri, then director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), to Chinese Ambassador Li Jinjun.
Demanding that the Senate summon Chinese and ZTE officials to the hearing, Madrigal said: ?We would like to get to the bottom of this because this is essential to knowing the truth ... This is very troubling because he (FG) has no official capacity whatsoever in government.?
Asked about the ?FG? marginal note, Neri told the Philippine Daily Inquirer: ?Why would I give him a copy??
Mike?s denial
Mike Arroyo?s spokesperson, lawyer Ruy Rondain, said it was ?grossly unfair? to allude that the letters ?FG? referred to the President?s husband.
In a statement, Rondain categorically denied that Mike Arroyo had ever received any document on the ZTE controversy and stressed: ?Mr. Arroyo was never involved in the ZTE deal.?
Rondain also said that anyone could have written the phrase ?Copy for FG? as a marginal note on any document pertaining to the deal.
?It defies common sense to furnish Mr. Arroyo a copy of any document not only on the ZTE deal but on any government transaction since Mr. Arroyo is not, and has never been, a government official. He also does not interfere in governance,? the statement said.
?If, on the other hand, there is an insinuation that he is clandestinely involved, then it would be even more foolish to give him anything in writing.?
March 29 letter
The ?Copy for FG? phrase was written on the upper right hand corner of Neri?s letter to the Chinese ambassador.
It thanked China for its positive response, in a March 26 letter, to official Philippine requests for loans for two pet projects of the Arroyo administration -- the NBN and the Cyber Education Project (CyberEd).
The March 29, 2007, letter -- which the Inquirer obtained a week ago -- stated that copies were to be furnished Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, Education Secretary Jesli Lapus, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and Monetary Board Member Vicente B. Valdepeñas Jr., according to Inquirer sources, who asked not to be identified because they were involved in the project.
The sources also provided the Inquirer with copies of other letters on the project which Neri wrote, all addressed to Chinese authorities.
The letters show Neri?s seemingly shifting positions on the project.
Utmost priority
Asked what the FG notation signified, the sources said they would just be speculating.
The letter?s release followed testimony at the Senate about alleged under the table deals surrounding the NBN project and Mike Arroyo?s alleged involvement in the deal.
Malacañang has repeatedly denied the testimony by businessman Jose de Venecia III and electronics engineer Rodolfo ?Jun? Lozada implicating Mike Arroyo in the project. Palace officials accused the two witnesses of fabricating stories to supply ammunition for the political opposition.
While Neri?s March 29 letter thanked the Chinese government for supporting CyberEd and NBN, it also urged the Chinese government to ?give utmost priority? to the CyberEd ?as quality education for all is of paramount interest to our country.?
Boao trip
At the time he wrote that letter, according to other documents and testimony at the Senate, Neri was apparently hesitant to fully support the NBN.
The letter said the Philippine government was ?looking forward? to the signing of an agreement for loans to build the CyberEd during Ms Arroyo?s visit to Boao, Hainan, China, on April 19-20 last year.
The letter was apparently written days before Neri -- according to his Senate testimony -- reported to Ms Arroyo an alleged P200-million bribe offered by ex-elections chief Benjamin Abalos Sr. for his approval of the NBN-ZTE deal.
Ms Arroyo, in a radio interview Saturday, admitted she was told of ?anomalies? in the deal just before she flew to China, and that she worked to cancel the deal as a result.
Three more letters
Neri?s March 29 letter was to be followed by at least three more letters addressed either to Ambassador Li Jinjun or Bo XiLai, Chinese minister of commerce, with a recurring message --the NBN is a priority project of the Philippine government.
A Neri letter to Li Jinjun on April 16, 2007, read in part:
?Further to our letter dated 29 March 2007, may we convey our government?s strong desire to expedite the financial procedures/approvals for the following projects which were recently approved by the Philippine government for Chinese loan financing.?
While the March 29 letter endorsed only the CyberEd for signing at Boao, the April 16 letter endorsed for signing two more projects besides the CyberEd -- the Angat Dam Watershed project and the NBN.
April 20, ?07 letter
?We anticipate that the commercial contracts for the above-mentioned projects would be signed to commemorate President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?s trip to Boao, China ...? said the April 16 letter.
The April 16 letter would be superseded by yet another letter on the same subject, dated April 19, 2007. This time, it was addressed to Commerce Minister Bo XiLai.
The CyberEd and Angat Dam Watershed projects disappeared in the April 19 letter that endorsed only one project -- the NBN.
It said the Philippine government hoped ?that the Chinese government would provide for the project the same, if not better, terms and conditions of loans previously obtained.?
The April 19 letter would be superseded yet again by another letter on April 20, also addressed to Bo XiLai.
The April 19 and April 20 letters of Neri to Bo XiLai both endorsed the NBN as a priority project for financing by the China Eximbank.
The April 20 letter came like a last-minute send-off gift for Ms Arroyo, who was to fly to Boao the same day to witness the signing of the $329-million supply contract with ZTE Corp. on April 21.
?A thief in the night?
It also came several hours after Neri told Ms Arroyo about Abalos? alleged P200-million bribe offer to him, a revelation that apparently didn?t prevent the President from proceeding to Boao.
Ms Arroyo said later she just couldn?t cancel the signing of the NBN contract in Boao because it would be rude to the Chinese government.
She flew to Boao at midnight of April 20 while her husband was recuperating at St. Luke?s Medical Center after a delicate heart surgery from which, according to his doctors, few survive.
Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza signed the NBN deal for the government and ZTE president Yu Yong for his company at an airport in Fujian shortly before Ms Arroyo returned to Manila.
The Office of the Press Secretary cited the deal in a press release as among Ms Arroyo?s achievements in her trip.
It was such a short trip that the press release even said that Ms Arroyo ?came like a thief in the night.?
Executive privilege
Two projects -- Cyber Education and the Angat Dam Watershed -- that were listed on Neri?s April 16 letter would disappear on his April 19 and April 20 letters.
The request for the signing of a contract on the NBN, glaring in the March 29 and April 16 letters, would also disappear in the April 19 and April 20 letters.
But the signing of the supply contract with ZTE went ahead just the same -- even if it was not endorsed by Neri?s April 19 and April 20 letters.
Neri was moved out of the NEDA shortly after that.
While Neri testified that Ms Arroyo knew of Abalos? alleged bribe offer before she flew to Boao and that she told him not to accept it, the former NEDA chief invoked executive privilege when pressed to reveal what else the President told him.
Three directives
In his own testimony, Lozada quoted Neri as saying that Ms Arroyo gave him three more instructions after he reported Abalos? alleged bribe offer:
The first was to approve the project just the same.
The second was to include the NBN on the list of projects the NEDA had cleared for signing at Boao.
The third was to remove other projects on the list of priorities for Chinese financing to make way for the NBN, according to Lozada.
To this day, Neri continues to invoke executive privilege to ward off further Senate questioning.
But his letters of April 19 and 20 could speak for themselves.
