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By Jomar Canlas, Reporter
GOVERNMENT lawyers countered the petition lodged
by Iloilo Vice-Governor Rolex Suplico and Amsterdam Holdings Inc. (AHI)
questioning the controversial National Broadband Network (NBN)
contract between the government and ZTE Corporation of China.
In a 111-page comment prepared by the Office of
the Solicitor General (OSG), led by Acting Justice Secretary Agnes
Devanadera, the government lawyers prayed before the Supreme Court
that the contract be pursued for the good of the people and the
economy.
“The NBN Project is an endeavor whose time has
come. A paperless bureaucracy, one that is more transparent to the
public it serves, one that is more accountable to the people it
bridges together, one that is totally responsive to the rapidly
changing millennium,” the comment says.
The lawyers pointed out that they made a
thorough evaluation of the NBN project. They found out that
“ZTE’s tender came out superior, not just in capacity and
technology, but even in what the government would have to shell out
in the long run for this national broadband endeavor.”
“The national broadband network project to be
undertaken by ZTE Corporation and funded by the government of the
People’s Republic of China through the China Export-Import Bank is
a valid executive agreement not covered by the Government Procurement
Reform Act and the Build-Operate-Transfer Law,” it says.
The OSG stressed that Suplico himself admitted
that the Commission on Audit has the constitutional mandate to
determine whether the contract is excessive and unconscionable.
Hence, his statement that the $329-million investment is excessive
and unnecessary “preempts the COA’s function rendering his
petition, not only premature, but without basis.”
The government lawyers argued that the
petitioners have no legal standing to file the suit as no government
funds were spent in the said project and the petitioners will not
suffer a direct injury if the contract will be implemented. Even AHI
cannot show proof that it has a claim standing as a taxpayer.
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