MANILA, Philippines—Pangasinan Rep. Jose de Venecia Jr. Monday accused President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of spending as much as P100 million in bribes in October 2007 to buy herself “legal protection” from moves to impeach her for at least a year.

Nine months after he was booted out as Speaker of the House of Representatives, De Venecia finally delivered on his promise to expose irregularities in the Arroyo administration, testifying at the start of discussions on the substance of the fourth impeachment complaint against her in three years.

He told the House committee on justice that Ms Arroyo had a hand in the bribery-tainted $329 million National Broadband Network (NBN) deal with China’s ZTE Corp., in unexplained delays in the NorthRail project and in the giving of cash gifts in connection with last year’s impeachment case against her.

De Venecia’s testimony marked the first time that the charges against the President have been elaborated on in Congress. Ms Arroyo’s dominant allies killed the previous ouster moves in the House even before details could be discussed.

De Venecia told his peers that the impeachment complaint filed by his son Joey was an opportunity to use their consciences and cleanse the image of congressmen as “commodities for sale.”

“Everybody is for sale in this country, even when we go to our districts, many of the citizenry are for sale. Their votes are for sale. Where will the country go? Now is the time to start cleansing ourselves and our nation,” he said in his 40-minute testimony.

He spoke of an invitation made by the President to him and other congressmen and local government officials to a breakfast meeting in Malacañang where the cash gifts were handed out on Oct. 11, 2007.

“In that meeting, many were given P500,000 in bags of cash. I am not saying all of the congressmen. Many of the congressmen are not guilty. But many received P500,000 bags from President Arroyo and I was not there because I knew what was going to happen,” De Venecia said.

“President Arroyo paid, spent hundreds, maybe a hundred million pesos, including gifts to governors which were admitted by (Bulacan) Gov. JonJon Mendoza and (Pampanga) Gov. Ed Panlilio ... (Manila) Congressman Beny Abante and Cebu Rep. Tony Cuenco and (Deputy Speaker) Amelita Villarosa.”

Large-scale bribery

“My God! The President is spending a fortune just to buy legal protection for one year. This bribe money to congressmen and local government officials was her way of purchasing legal protection for one year because of the Supreme Court decision that an impeachment case can be only filed for one year,” De Venecia said.

He said he met the President on that day at 11 a.m. in the Malacañang music room where he was asked to transmit what he described as a “bogus and sham” three-page impeachment complaint by lawyer Roel Pulido that preempted the “more serious complaint” by San Juan Rep. Ronaldo Zamora and Iloilo Vice Gov. Rolex Suplico.

De Venecia’s bag of P500,000 cash, which was delivered to his office that same day, would be forwarded to the committee as exhibit A.

“This is large-scale bribery and corruption, as if we members of the House are commodities for sale. Please use our conscience if we want to cleanse this country, this government and this Congress,” he said.

Not a single rail track laid

In the NorthRail case, De Venecia was adamant that he did not get any cut from the deal while directly pointing to the President as the reason no single track of railroad has been built since the loan agreement from China Export-Import Bank was signed in 2004.

“How can anyone ask for commission from the Chinese government when we are the ones begging them to come here,” said De Venecia who claimed to have persuaded Chinese leaders to undertake the project.

He said that only China was willing to finance the project. He said the United States, Canada, Italy, Germany, France, South Korea and Austria did not want to touch it because of the 40,000 to 50,000 that lived just “six inches” off the rail tracks in subhuman conditions.

“After the agreement was signed in 2004, how come up to now not one single kilometer of rail had been built? President Arroyo has a lot of explaining to do. This is a failure of government, you cannot say that the fault lies with the government of China. Good governance is the issue,” De Venecia said.

He said that he knew that his fate was “sealed and doomed” on the day his son went to the Senate to testify on the NBN-ZTE deal that cost him the speakership and the presidency of the Lakas political party.

Follow your conscience

“I told my son to please don’t appear anymore in the Senate for the president and the party. But he told me ‘Dad, you are the Speaker of the House that pass judgment on the (budget). How can you in conscience allow this project to pass overpriced by $130 million to $200 million,’ De Venecia said.

“They offered him a bribe of $10 million and (former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary) Romy Neri was offered a bribe of P200 million. How can I in conscience tell him don’t do it? So I just I told him to follow his conscience,” De Venecia said.

He recalled how the President invited him and his wife to a golf game which turned out to be a meeting with ZTE officials and former Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos in Shengzhen, China.

“Pray tell me, what is the President of the Philippines doing there? What is the husband of the President doing in the ZTE headquarters, a company that is bidding for a massive project in the Philippines? Pray tell me why the Comelec chair is there?” De Venecia said.

Pictures do not lie

“Mike Arroyo said that I am lying. Let me say to you pictures do not lie. It was Mike Arroyo who said that perhaps it is best that this project be done in a government to government basis,” De Venecia said, referring to the President’s husband.

De Venecia also revealed that the President snubbed his call for a moral revolution in a letter, which he said was drafted with the help of National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales and the President’s brother, Diosdado Jr., a year ago.

“I said Madame President, you have 100 days to do this. If you do all these, your sin will be forgiven,” said De Venecia who felt that Ms Arroyo could do what Lee-Kuan Yew did in Singapore.

He said that he and former President Fidel V. Ramos had constantly urged Ms Arroyo to reform but “we were completely ignored.”

De Venecia said that shortly after launching the moral revolution crusade, he and his son had been threatened with assassination.

“I wrote letters to her on these attempts on my life and on my son Joey but she did not even reply or take action,” De Venecia said.

Give impeachment a chance

“Please give the impeachment complaint a chance. We are not asking that we judge President Arroyo guilty, this is just an opportunity to listen to witnesses so we can transmit to the President and the President can tell us her position,” De Venecia said.

He later told reporters that Malacañang might once again release money to convince lawmakers to kill the fourth bid to unseat her.

“Siguro may iikot na naman (There may be [money] to be circulated again),” he said.

Endorsers

Each of the seven endorsers of the fourth impeachment complaint against the President recited details of alleged corruption and culpable violations of the Constitution.

Deputy Minority Leader Rep. Satur Ocampo talked about human rights violations and extrajudicial killings.

Gabriela party-list Rep. Liza Maza also spoke on the alleged bribery in Malacañang last year. “Isn’t it that in the end, it was the President who benefited?” she asked.

Details on the P728-million fertilizer fund scam and the controversy hounding the Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. (Quedancor) program were presented by Anakpawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano, who said that Ms Arroyo, a known “micromanager,” could not feign ignorance of these two schemes.

Disadvantageous

Gabriela Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan, who spoke on the government’s mining contract with China’s ZTE Corp. to operate at Mt. Diwalwal, said the deal was grossly disadvantageous since 90 percent of the mined ore would go to ZTE.

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño said the NorthRail contract had many similarities with the equally controversial NBN deal.

Both contracts, he noted, involved staggering amounts of loans, no public bidding or no approval from the Monetary Board on the availability of funds, a constitutional requirement.

The project has also been found by the University of the Philippines to be grossly disadvantageous and overpriced, Casiño said, adding that aside from the $500 million original price, the Chinese contractors also asked for an additional $299 million for changes and $218 million for standard tracks.

Bukidnon Rep. Teofisto Guingona III said the facts of the 2004 electoral fraud are also sufficient to oust the President. He said Ms Arroyo appointed Virgilio Garcillano as Commission on Elections commissioner because he “delivered almost any electoral pleasure of the administration.”

Recorded phone calls between her and Garcillano also showed her complicity in cheating as well as coercing election officials to ensure her victory in the 2004 polls. He said the taped conversations had been proved to be authentic.