Cayetano on NBN deal: ‘No direct link to Arroyo’
Senate probe found evidence ‘leading to Palace’
By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:09:00 04/30/2008
MANILA, Philippines—Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano Tuesday said the Senate investigation into the scrapped $329-million National Broadband Network deal had yielded evidence “leading up to the Office of the President” but no direct testimony linking President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to the scandal-tainted project.
Cayetano said the Senate blue ribbon committee, which he chairs, would come out with its interim report on the results of its probe hopefully within the next 14 days if no new witnesses came forward.
Cayetano said the report would focus on the millions of dollars in supposed kickbacks from the deal and the abduction of star witness Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada.
“There is evidence leading up to the Office of the President but it is always better—may it be in a court of law, in an impeachment proceeding or in the blue ribbon committee—that there is direct testimony. (In this case), there is no direct testimony,” Cayetano told reporters.
“If by next week we will have no new witness, we will release this too. We’re making the report now and hopefully we’ll finish it within the next two weeks,” he said. “The report will not be dependent on them (new witnesses).”
Cayetano confirmed that there were some senators who were still working on some witnesses.
“But we will not wait for them. We are now preparing the report, which includes the abduction issue and the main issues of the ZTE,” Cayetano said. “We do not want to wait too long to come up with their recommendations because what is more important is to have remedial legislation that this will not be repeated.”
Cayetano said that businessman Ruben Reyes had supposedly signified his intent to testify but that he had yet to make good on his word.
Fellow opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson expressed surprise at Cayetano’s move to close the NBN hearings.
Key witness at Wack Wack?
Lacson said the Senate should not just sit back and wait for people to come forward but should “exert efforts to look for witnesses or convince witnesses to share their knowledge on issues of public importance.”
Contrary to reports that Reyes was still in China, Lacson said that his informants told him that Reyes had been playing golf at the Wack-Wack Golf and Country Club, where some of the NBN negotiations had supposedly taken place.
“We should compel them (witnesses) to appear if they refuse to heed our invitation,” said Lacson.
Previous Senate testimony had pointed to Reyes as an alleged bagman who received around $11 million in advance payments from ZTE Corp. for a so-called “Greedy Group ++” supposedly led by former Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr.
The NBN deal with China’s telecommunications giant ZTE Corp. involved an ambitious administration project to digitally link government offices from the national level down to the barangays nationwide.
Ms Arroyo scuttled the project after allegations that Abalos and other government officials had received massive kickbacks and that the President’s husband, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, was also involved in the deal.
Mike Arroyo and Abalos strongly denied the allegations.
The Senate’s NBN hearings have lasted 13 sessions covering 100 hours of testimony spread over seven months. The last hearing was held in March.
Jinggoy opposed
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada said that he would oppose the plan to prematurely shut down the hearing.
Estrada noted he had called for the arrest of Reyes if he continued to ignore the Senate’s summons and that the Senate should take a stand against recalcitrant witnesses, especially after its recent defeat in the Supreme Court, which upheld the right of Commission on Higher Education Chair Romulo Neri to refuse to further testify in the chamber, invoking executive privilege.
Rail projects
Estrada said the senators would be remiss in their duty if they did not pursue the investigation while there were still loose ends.
Cayetano said the Senate was eager to move forward—by next month—its investigation into the NorthRail and SouthRail projects and the alleged diversion of loans for a hog dispersal program, to show Malacańang that it was continuing to monitor its spending on these projects.
Chinese money
On NorthRail, Cayetano said the Senate would resume from where the previous Congress left off when it probed the allegedly overpriced railroad plan brokered by former House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr.
“I estimate that we will have one or two more hearings before we go to SouthRail,” said Cayetano.
The NorthRail project, funded by the Chinese government, is a 32.2-km commuter train system that will link Caloocan City and Malolos, Bulacan.
The $503-million NorthRail project is alleged to cost a whopping $16 million (P900 million) per kilometer of railroad track.
The SouthRail project seeks to link Laguna to provinces in Bicol through a high-speed train service. It, too, will be funded by a loan from China.
The hog dispersal controversy involved loans to groups and individuals for swine production. There were allegations that the funds for the program may have been used in the 2004 presidential election. With a report from Inquirer Research
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