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By Efren L. Danao Senior
Reporter
The Senate hearing on the
controversial broadband deal certainly seemed to have the makings of
a drama.
There was, of course, the
bombshell charge of a P200-million bribe. That was punctuated by a
tantrum by Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, who walked out of the
hearing. And there was also some suspense about the bribe reported
to the President, but details were not possible because of
“executive privilege.”
When it was Senator Santiago’s
turn to ask questions at Wednesday’s hearing, she declared that
she will instead make comments. She said the controversy over the
suspended National Broadband Network project is not about national
interests—rather a squabble among people backstabbing each other
over billions of pesos in kickbacks.
“No wonder they are going after
each other’s throat,” Santiago said, her voice rising.
She said the $330-million
broadband project was overpriced by some P1.5 billion, purportedly
for kickbacks.
“You are merely fighting over
your kickbacks. You are wasting the time of the Senate,” she
harangued the broadband protagonists before storming out of the
session hall where the public hearing was held.
Santiago, the chairman of the
Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, did not concentrate her venom
on the resource persons alone.
“China invented civilization,
but China also invented corruption,” she said.
At the last hearing, she argued
that the row over the broadband project is really a turf war between
China and United States that is being fought by their Filipino
proxies.
The broadband contract had been
awarded to the Chinese firm ZTE Corp., the biggest
telecommunications firm in China. Defensor earlier alluded to an
American consultancy group that was reportedly supplying information
against ZTE.
Businessman Jose “Joey” de
Venecia 3rd, representing ZTE’s rival, Amsterdam Holdings Inc. (AHI),
said the cost of the broadband project should have been only $262
million. De Venecia contested Santiago’s claim of a double-cross
over kickbacks. He said that he was never involved in a kickback.
Earlier, he charged that Chairman
Benjamin Abalos of the Commission on Elections had offered him a
$10-million bribe to give way to the ZTE. Abalos was also accused of
offering P200 million to Romulo Neri. He is now acting chairman of
the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and he was head of the
National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), which reviews
projects like the broadband project.
Abalos denied both allegations of
offering bribes.
Suspense over Arroyos
In Wednesday’s testimony, Neri
cleared the President’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo.
He was earlier implicated by Joey
de Venecia, who claimed that Mr. Arroyo threatened him to “back
off” the broadband deal. That would have cleared the way for ZTE
Corp., which eventually landed the project.
But Neri said neither Mr. Arroyo
nor his representatives had raised the broadband project to him.
Neri also said President Arroyo
had told him not to accept the alleged P200-million bribe. But he
refused to give details about what the President said, as he invoked
executive privilege.
“I think we have to respect
privilege information between the President and her Cabinet
members,” Neri said later in the hearing.
Later in the hearing, Sen.
Aquilino Pimentel threatened to charge Neri with contempt to force
him to give details. That was not acted on as of press time, though.
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