Commission on Elections former Chairman Benjamin Abalos with wife Corazon after attending promulgation of Sandiganbayan Fourth Division where he was acquitted from his graft charges over the anomalous NBN-ZTE deal. INQUIRER PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES
Shortly after the Sandiganbayan absolved him on Wednesday of graft over the scuttled $329-million national broadband network (NBN) project with China’s ZTE Corp. during the Arroyo administration, former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chair Benjamin Abalos Jr. immediately proceeded to Wack Wack Golf and Country Club in Mandaluyong City.
This was the golf course where Abalos allegedly offered P200 million in “commission” to then National Economic and Development Authority Chief Romulo Neri in exchange for endorsing the NBN deal in April 2007.
More than nine years later, the antigraft court’s Fourth Division said government prosecutors failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Abalos had indeed acted as agent in behalf of ZTE to secure the lucrative contract.
“It’s time to move on,” the 81-year-old Abalos told reporters after the court acquitted him.
“Like what I have been telling the people, you have nothing to be afraid if you know you’re on the side of the truth,” he said.
Asked about his message to whistle-blowers Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada and Jose “Joey” de Venecia III, he said: “May the Lord bless them.”
In a 43-page decision, the antigraft court did not rule on the claim that the project was overpriced as the Office of the
Ombudsman did not include such allegation in the original complaint filed against the former Comelec chief.
“The failure of the prosecution to sufficiently establish its allegation that the accused brokered for ZTE for a fee in the concluded NBN-ZTE contract has rendered moot the legal issue on whether the alleged act constitutes the offense [of graft],” the court ruled.
“Accordingly, accused Benjamin S. Abalos is acquitted for the charge against him for failure of the prosecution to establish his guilt beyond reasonable doubt,” it added.
It said the Ombudsman also failed to back up its claim that Abalos received kickbacks and brokered the deal between ZTE and the Philippine government as claimed by Lozada, Neri’s personal friend and adviser.
If at all, the court said the Ombudsman only proved that Abalos pushed for the “collaboration” between ZTE and De Venecia’s Amsterdam Holdings Inc. (AHI).
De Venecia, son and namesake of former House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., had testified in the Senate inquiries that Abalos offered him $10 million to back off from project.
Under the agreement, the court said the Chinese firm was supposed to supply the equipment to AHI which, in turn, would enter into a contract with the Philippine government regarding the NBN operation.
The project was intended to install a vast telecommunications network linking all government offices across the country.
“[The Ombudsman] was not able to establish that he [Abalos] brokered the signed contract between ZTE and the Philippine government and that he did so for a fee,” the court ruled.