MANILA, Philippines -- In contrast to the open arms extended to star witness Rodolfo Lozada Jr., senators are skeptical over the new witness, former ZTE Corp. consultant Dante Madriaga, who some senators say could recant his testimony like what certain Senate witnesses did.

?Is he a Trojan horse?? asked Sen. Francis Pangilinan.

?Unlike Mr. Lozada, he seems more relaxed and wasn?t at all reluctant in accusing no less than PGMA (President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) and the First Gentleman of serious criminal acts. The Senate should not let its guard down. We should treat this new witness with extreme caution,? Pangilinan said.

Senate President Manuel Villar also said Madriaga could be a Trojan horse.

?We have to look into his background and validate what he has testified to. He knows a lot of details about the ZTE deal. If he is indeed a Trojan horse, this Trojan horse has been well trained. If he is just making it all up, he?s good at faking,? Villar said.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano said the blue ribbon technical working group would put Madriaga through a battery of questions to assess the substance of his testimony and to serve as a basis of whether to put him back on the witness stand next week.

Villar justified the tests on Madriaga. ?We are doing this because we know that some parties who do not want the truth to come out will try to muddle the investigation,? he said.

?What if a witness comes up with this riveting testimony but would later recant it and say that he was just paid to do it? That will derail the investigation,? Villar said, adding that ?nobody can just walk in the Senate and offer his testimony.?

Cayetano said: ?Right now there is no reason not to believe him because there is no apparent falsity in what he is saying. We have not rejected his statements but we are not accepting them hook, line and sinker.?

Cayetano described Lozada was an intellectual, a technocrat who got involved in something very wrong. ?But Madriaga by his own admission is part of the gang and the one doing the consolidation. He is used to sowing fear and not being scared,? he said.

They don?t know him

Asked whether he had ever met or worked with Madriaga, Lozada replied, ?Not once.?

?I don?t know him,? Lozada said. ?He belongs to the Abalos group.?

Commission on Higher Education Chair Romulo Neri, who was the socioeconomic planning secretary when the $329-million broadband deal was approved, indicated he was not interested in the disclosures of Madriaga.

?I don?t know Madriaga and I have never met him before,? Neri told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net).

In Malacañang, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita led Palace officials in denying comments by some senators that Madriaga was actually a Palace lackey.

?I don?t know him,? Ermita told reporters.

Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza acknowledged though that Madriaga used to work at the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) during the term of former Secretary Josie Lichauco.

Mendoza said Madriaga was a project manager of the Telepono ng Barangay program.

Madriaga denied that he was out to sabotage the Senate investigation of the broadband deal, which has led to renewed calls for the President to resign.

?If I come out as someone not credible, I am not an actor. I did not rehearse ? If they doubt my credibility, I can?t do anything about it anymore. I am not pleading for them to believe me,? he said.

Texas university

In his unsigned affidavit, Madriaga said he studied for 2 1/2 years at the College of Engineering of the University of the Philippines. He transferred to the prestigious Texas A & M University where he obtained a bachelor?s degree in mechanical engineering in 1969.

He was hired as a consultant by the DoTC in 1999 for its Telepono sa Barangay project, according to his affidavit.

He was an incorporator of Philippine Communications Clearinghouse Inc. along with Voltaire Alcantara and Leo San Miguel.

In 2001, he reportedly discredited Pacifico ?Pic? Marcelo, who accused Ms Arroyo of attempting to take over the telecommunications company for private gain.

From late 2004 to late 2005, he worked with Arescom, an American firm. He designed a broadband network, which Arescom submitted as a project proposal to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

The Department of Interior and Local Government rejected the $130-million Arescom project proposal called Comnet.

Designer of NBN

In May 2006, Madriaga was hired by ZTE where he headed the team that came up with a design for a National Broadband Network (NBN) project.

He was dismissed by ZTE in December 2006 allegedly on suspicion of passing information to Amsterdam Holdings Inc., the company of Jose de Venecia III, which also offered to undertake the project.

Madriaga said he still had to be paid more than P1 million for his technical services to ZTE. He said he had already been paid around P700,000 to P800,000. ?I was promised that once the project is implemented, I will get paid from the services,? he said.

Pangilinan said he feared that some forces might want to undermine the integrity of the Senate hearings on the scrapped broadband deal.

?There will be problems of credibility if he suddenly turns back on his word claiming he was forced just like other witnesses before him. I hope I?m wrong,? he said.

Speculative

Saying Madriaga?s testimony was ?speculative? and all ?hearsay,? Mendoza said the new Senate witness also made statements with loopholes.

He pointed to Madriaga?s claim that ZTE paid $41 million in kickbacks to Ms Arroyo, her husband and a so-called ?Gang of Four.?

?We?re evaluating how to get this money based on our computation on how much the project cost,? Mendoza said as he noted that the claim of Madriaga was just ?his imagination.?

Mendoza said the DoTC was standing by its computation that the NBN project cost $329 million.

Partly hearsay

Sen. Francis Escudero noted both Lozada and Madriaga had given testimonies that were partly based on hearsay.

?You might notice that Senator Lacson usually is the one who knows or who has links to the witnesses which is why I think he is in the best position to judge him (Madriaga),? he said.

Villar said Madriaga himself admitted that he was just a ?second liner? catering to the whims of the Gang of Four and not in the same league as Lozada and De Venecia.

Cayetano said he and the two other heads of the joint panel investigating the broadband deal?Senators Manuel ?Mar? Roxas II and Rodolfo Biazon -- were cautious about allowing Madriaga to just walk in and testify during the hearing on Tuesday because they did not know his background.

Cayetano said the committee chairs relented after Lacson, who previously accused Madriaga?s agent of demanding P5 million for his testimony, personally endorsed his appearance.

But Lacson said more corroboration was needed because he had no personal knowledge of most of what Madriaga had talked about.

?He said a lot of things that were shocking and that jive with the circumstance,? said Lacson.

Hearings resume next week

The NBN probe is scheduled to resume either on Thursday or Friday next week.

?The Supreme Court will hear Neri?s petition on executive privilege on Tuesday and we expect the court to make a decision to allow Neri to appear in the Senate,? Cayetano said.

Cayetano said that the Senate would send out an invitation to former Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. while issuing a subpoena to the other Gang of Four members -- San Miguel, Ruben Reyes and Quirino de la Torre, and Abalos? man Friday Jimmy Paz.

Cayetano said the joint panel was still studying how to summon ZTE officers to the Senate.

Lacson said that he had requested the Chinese Embassy for its government to conduct a parallel probe of the ZTE officials who took part in the giving of kickbacks to the Gang of Four.

Lacson said Madriaga?s boss, San Miguel, would be the perfect witness to corroborate his testimony.

Immigration watch list

Lacson said San Miguel was still in the country but was reportedly scheduled to fly to Cambodia on March 5.

?We have already requested the Bureau of Immigration to monitor the Gang of Four?s departure,? he said.

He said he had contacted San Miguel?s friend, former Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr., to convince the Gang of Four member to come out and testify.

Lacson said he had also made a request to US Ambassador Kristie Kenney to revoke the US visa of Reyes, the alleged bagman of the group, and force him to come back to the country. With reports from Daxim Lucas, Jerry Esplanada and Inquirer Research