MANILA, Philippines—The failure of the Senate blue ribbon committee to find direct evidence linking President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to the controversial National Broadband Network (NBN) deal is a “vindication” for the Arroyo administration, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Wednesday.

Ermita felt relieved that Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano admitted Tuesday that the Senate investigation of the scrapped $329-million NBN deal had yielded evidence “leading up to the Office of the President” but no direct testimony linking Ms Arroyo to the scandal-tainted project.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said he was baffled by Cayetano’s statement that there was testimony linking the NBN deal to Malacañang but no direct evidence that would directly link the President.

“So who has the most responsibility sitting in Malacañang?” Lacson asked.

Cayetano, chair of the blue ribbon committee, said there was 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.”

“That’s very significant because the fact of the matter is even if we listen to all interviews in the Senate, there were really no evidence whatsoever linking the President,” said Ermita, who sailed with the President and other Cabinet members on a roll-on, roll-off (Ro-Ro) vessel in the final leg of the Ro-Ro three-day caravan.

Ermita said the Senate, as a whole, should come up with a formal report on the scandal which spawned fresh calls for Ms Arroyo’s resignation.

Ms Arroyo aborted the $329-million deal in October last year after allegations that then Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. received kickbacks and that her husband, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, was also involved in the deal.

The NBN deal was aimed at linking digitally government agencies from the national level down to the barangays nationwide.

Cayetano said the blue ribbon committee would come out with an interim report on the results of its probe within the next two weeks if no new witnesses came forward.

Not yet time to end probe

Lacson said it was not yet time to end the probe of the NBN deal with China’ ZTE Corp. The Senate should compel resource persons to appear at the investigation, according to Lacson.

“It’s not a good sign for other resource persons who might think it was all right to snub the hearings because the report would still be finalized,” he said.

Cayetano stood by his statement. “Let us pardon Senator Lacson because he did not understand what I said,” he said.

Cayetano said there was no direct testimony leading to the President. “We could have better evidence if we have a witness testifying the involvement of the President. If there is such a witness, we are still waiting for that witness but we can’t wait forever,” said the chair of the blue ribbon committee, the lead panel in the Senate probe.

He said the public could only deduce from the testimonies of witnesses that the President was indeed involved.

Miriam, Loren support

Several senators supported Cayetano’s position.

“By saying that there is no direct testimony implicating the President or the First Couple, then it is, in effect, an admission that the case against the First Couple is either very weak or does not exist at all,” Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said.

She said the earlier the partial report was released, “the fairer it becomes to those being charged.”

Prescribed period

Santiago said the blue ribbon committee should come up with the report to comply with the prescribed time period under Senate rules.

The Senate started its probe in September last year and had since then conducted 13 hearings.

Sen. Loren Legarda agreed with Cayetano’s statement that the Senate need not wait for a witness to come forward before making a final report.

“We have spent so much time for the hearings, asked so many questions. We don’t want to waste our time waiting for a witness who is not really involved in the ZTE deal,” Legarda said.

Based on the testimonies, there was no direct link to the President, she said. “There was no money handed to her. There was nothing like that although some of those close to her were present (in the ZTE meetings), but we still cannot link this to her,” Legarda said.

Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II also agreed with Cayetano, saying that no one testified claiming to link the President to the deal or that the President had issued orders on the ZTE deal.

“That is an accurate reflection of the record. But there are clearly other circumstances and other events that would lead one to believe that Malacañang, the executive, the President, clearly influenced or clearly had some say as to the direction of the transaction as well as the approval of the transaction. That is the reason why the NEDA (National Economic and Development Authority) documents are important,” Roxas said.

Wait for SC ruling

Roxas said that he would agree to a committee report on the condition that it was not final. “We cannot close it yet mainly because the Supreme Court has yet to act on our petition to release the NEDA documents showing the process in approving the NBN project,” said Roxas.

Roxas noted that had the Senate agreed to the Supreme Court compromise for the conditional appearance of Romulo Neri, former NEDA chief, the joint committees investigating the NBN-ZTE deal would have been able to come up with new evidence on issues that Neri was willing to discuss.

Lacson also said he would not oppose the drafting of a committee report as long as it was not final.

“The Supreme Court has not yet resolved our motion for reconsideration and we still have a pending subpoena issued against Ruben Reyes. His lawyer Anacleto Diaz has already promised us to bring his client here,” Lacson said.

Bagman

Reyes was identified in previous hearings as the alleged bagman who received about $11 million in advance kickbacks from ZTE Corp. for the “Greedy Group ++,” which supposedly consisted of the President and Mike Arroyo and Abalos.

Lacson said the debate over the fate of the NBN probe only showed how crucial the Supreme Court decision was in upholding Neri’s right to invoke executive privilege on the senators’ questions on the President’s orders after Neri informed her of the P200-million bribe allegedly offered by Abalos to him to endorse the NBN deal.

“We could have obtained a broad range of significant information from Neri had he been forced by the high court to talk,” said Lacson.

The Senate wants to reverse the tribunal’s decision which upheld Neri’s invocation of executive privilege on his conversations with the President on the ZTE deal.

Legal complications

Ermita pointed to legal complications arising from issuing a report on the ZTE investigation ahead of the Supreme Court ruling on the motion for reconsideration (MR) the Senate had filed.

“(T)hey can very well say that they can’t come out with a comprehensive report because they haven’t heard Neri. But they can’t hear Neri because the decision of the Supreme Court was adverse to what they want, and now there’s an MR,” he said.