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The President’s husband, Jose Miguel “Mike”
Arroyo, personally denied an accusation that he told the son of the
House Speaker to “back off” from the controversial national
broadband project, the government media reported.
Earlier, businessman Jose
“Joey” de Venecia 3rd testified in the Senate that Mr. Arroyo
threateningly told him to withdraw from the broadband project at a
meeting at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club. The deal was
eventually given to ZTE Corp. of China, the competitor of de
Venecia’s firm, Amsterdam Holdings Inc. (AHI).
“I never said back off,” the
Philippine News Agency reported Mr. Arroyo as saying upon his
arrival from Hong Kong.
“That is not even in my
vocabulary, and I never pointed a finger at Joey de Venecia,” Mr.
Arroyo said. “How can I say back off to someone I don’t even
know?”
Mr. Arroyo, however, admitted
that he had a chance meeting with de Venecia in mid-March this year
at Wack Wack.
He said it’s unlikely for a
person to say “back off, back off” the first they meet. “You
cannot say that.”
“What I did is that I reminded
him that he might be liable under the antigraft law because he is
the son of the House Speaker,” Mr. Arroyo said. “You cannot
deal with government contract.”
This is the first time Arroyo was
able to respond personally to de Venecia’s accusations. He left
for vacation on September 17, the eve of a Senate investigation into
the $330-million broadband project.
Asked if he would file charges
against the Speaker’s son, Arroyo said, “It’s up to my
lawyer.”
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