Senate to reopen inquiry into NBN deal
By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr., Juliet Labog-Javellana
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:51:00 05/15/2008
With the emergence of a new witness, the Senate “blue ribbon” committee on accountability of public officials will put its draft report on hold and reopen its inquiry into the scandal-ridden national broadband network (NBN) deal with China’s ZTE Corp. in the next two weeks, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano announced Wednesday.
“I know this witness from two months ago, and he was one among the witnesses I mentioned who can give direct testimony regarding the participation of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the deal,” said Cayetano, chair of the committee leading the inquiry.
“I have known about his testimony, and I know it’s substantial. I know it’s a direct testimony and I know it talks about the role of the President ... so the public can judge for itself,” he said.
The guessing game on the identity of the new witness handled by Iloilo Vice province’s Governor Rolex Suplico has begun, with Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago saying it was lawyer Alex Avisado Jr. and certain quarters claiming it was former House Speaker Jose de Venecia.
But both pro-administration and opposition senators expressed wariness about having an unidentified witness testify at the Senate without being apprised of the weight and validity of what he knew of the $329-million NBN-ZTE contract that was eventually scrapped by Ms Arroyo.
The witness who disclosed Ms Arroyo’s secret visit to the ZTE headquarters in Shenzhen, China, on Nov. 2, 2006, five months before the firm bagged the government contract, documented it almost by accident, but he is prepared to testify before the Senate.
“The last time I spoke with him [a few days ago], he was ready, willing and able to testify. He will narrate the events leading to the picture-taking,” Suplico told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Wednesday.
Suplico said the witness—who he says was present at Ms Arroyo’s golf game and subsequent meeting with ZTE officials in China—had approached him with the pictures and sought his advice.
“I told him the truth must come out,” Suplico said.
‘Were you there?’
A president is immune from suit but the public still has the right to ask Ms Arroyo about allegations of graft and corruption, Cayetano said.
“Madam President, were you there?” he said. “Did you meet with the ZTE officials? What did you talk about? I am not only challenging [her] but demanding that the President answer the allegations.”
Cayetano had earlier announced that the Senate inquiry into the NBN-ZTE deal found no evidence directly linking Ms Arroyo to the deal. He put the inquiry on hold and said an interim report would be ready by the middle of May.
On Wednesday, he said: “I have no doubt that the committee will gain much from having [the new witness] here. He took the pictures himself. He was there.”
In an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer in March, the witness said he was simply having his pictures taken beside the name of the Shenzhen Golf Club but the camera caught the President and her husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, in the frame.
He said he realized this only later, when the NBN-ZTE controversy was raging in the Philippines.
The witness said that when he saw a video clip of the ZTE headquarters in TV news reports on the Senate inquiry, he realized that he had been in that building, and with the President’s party at that.
“Napuntahan namin ‘yang building na ‘yan” [“We had gone to that building”], he said.
The witness said that when he searched for pictures of the trip, he realized he had pictures not only of himself but also of the First Couple.
That was when he approached Suplico, a friend, who told him about the significance of his knowledge and the pictures, he said.
‘Other pieces of the truth’
Sought for comment, Senate witness Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr., who had testified on alleged kickbacks in the NBN-ZTE deal, said he was pleased that another witness was coming forward with more information.
“I’m glad that someone else is coming out,” Lozada said. “I always say that what I revealed was just part of the truth and there are more people who know the truth. So, hopefully, those who hold the other pieces of the truth will be encouraged to reveal what they know.”
Lozada said he did not know the identity of the witness, but added that he knew Ms Arroyo had played golf and gone sightseeing at Shenzhen.
He also said he believed that Ms Arroyo’s meeting with the ZTE officials was intended to “demonstrate the commitment to push through with the deal.”
Another whistleblower, businessman Jose de Venecia III, son of the former Speaker, said the picture of the First Couple at the Shenzhen Golf Club confirmed what he and other witnesses had been saying.
“I’m not surprised that the President visited the ZTE [headquarters] because I knew all along they were all part of this from the beginning. That’s what I’ve been saying since September last year [at the Senate inquiry],” said De Venecia III, who was the first to testify on alleged overpricing of the NBN deal and the fat commissions for the purported broker, Benjamin Abalos, then-chairman of the Commission on Elections. He also linked Ms Arroyo’s husband to the deal.
De Venecia III said the picture provided by Suplico’s witness “just shows that the President really went to the ZTE offices. It’s really unusual for the President to go to a supplier.”
At the Senate inquiry, De Venecia III said his father had called him from a golf game with Ms Arroyo and Abalos in Shenzhen to tell him that the President was praising his NBN proposal over that of Abalos.
His firm, Amsterdam Holdings Inc., was sidelined in the project that was eventually awarded to the Chinese telecommunications giant.
‘Delicadeza’
Cayetano said the new witness had refused to submit a sworn statement—which did not sit well with the other senators, especially after the letdown from another, much-hyped “surprise witness,” Leo San Miguel, whose testimony failed to shed light on the purported corruption surrounding the NBN-ZTE deal.
Sen. Mar Roxas said Ms Arroyo should have exercised more “delicadeza” [sense of propriety] in dealing with foreign investors considering that the ZTE officials were lobbying for a government contract during the golf game.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson said he did not know the witness but was interested to know the exact circumstances of the golf game.
Said Lacson: “When did ZTE become a proponent? If it was before that date when she went and talked to ZTE officials, it will raise questions on the propriety of the President. Even if ZTE was here, she should not have entertained them because it was involved in a major contract. Malacañang has already admitted [that Ms Arroyo went to Shenzhen] and talked to ZTE officials, so there’s no more issue as to whether it’s true or not.”
He added, referring to Ms Arroyo’s conversation with then-election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano during the 2004 presidential election: “We have a President who talked to a commissioner during the election, so what do we expect?”
‘So what?’
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. was skeptical on whether the new witness would add to what he called “voluminous” material gathered at the Senate hearings.
Said Pimentel: “If he is only going to say that Gloria [Ms Arroyo] went there and met with ZTE officials, so what? ... If his testimony [will be] as bare as that, it will just add pages to the transcript but hardly anything to the culpability of Gloria. Of course, it will show she was aware of what was happening with ZTE but ... we already know that.”
Senate President Manny Villar said there was no reason not to invite the new witness. But he said he wanted to first discuss with Cayetano how to assess the witness’ credibility.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan said that at the very least, the blue ribbon committee should “size up” the witness.
“We should process him first. It would be better for him to submit a sworn statement so that it will be better organized. We’d like to see the pictures, get the committee chair to evaluate, and then make his recommendations,” Pangilinan said. But he admitted that the Senate could not strictly impose its affidavit requirement on all witnesses.
‘Nothing wrong’
Senator Santiago, a staunch Arroyo ally, said she had been tipped that the witness was “Attorney Alex Avisado, who has been lawyering for rebels and opposition leaders.”
But both Cayetano and Lacson disagreed, saying Avisado was not in the President’s entourage in Shenzen.
Santiago said she saw nothing amiss in Ms Arroyo’s meeting with ZTE officials, which she said was not a secret.
“There is nothing wrong with the president of a country to meet, in a discreet fashion, not incognito, with the CEO [of a company],” she said. “The Philippines is interested in keeping it quiet, not exactly a secret, because we don’t want our rival countries in Southeast Asia to know which investment firms we are talking to. They might come in and take over our project. The foreign investor will also want to keep it discreet...
“So, by mutual agreement, these talks between, for example, President Arroyo and the CEO of ZTE, are just kept discreet. There is no intention to mislead the public.”
Santiago said that instead of investigating Ms Arroyo for meeting with ZTE officials, the latter should be rewarded for bringing in foreign investors.
She said that while she believed that her colleagues would reject her call not to entertain the new witness, “I will maintain that there is nothing criminal or illicit with what the President allegedly did.” With a report from Leila B. Salaverria; edited by INQUIRER.net
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