|
By Efren L. Danao, Senior Reporter
The Senate hearing on the aborted $330-million
broadband deal is expected to continue today, with the new star
witness claiming he has said everything Friday and with government
allowing officials —except Romulo Neri—to attend.
The Senate blue-ribbon committee headed by Sen.
Alan Peter Cayetano is expected to expand its probe, pursuing leads
into other anomalous government contracts mentioned by Rodolfo
“Jun” Lozada Jr. during his emotional testimony and his alleged
abduction by authorities. On Friday, he testified that the
$932-million Southrail project may have been overpriced by as much
as $65 million.
Lozada said he feels like he has been squeezed
dry. “I have nothing more to add.”
Nonetheless, Cayetano seems determined to pursue
the new leads.
For today’s hearing, he has invited former
Secretary Michael Defensor of the Department of Environment and
Natural Resources (DENR), current Environment Secretary Lito Atienza,
Deputy Executive Secretary Manuel Gaite, national police chief
Avelino Razon and Angel Atutubo of the Ninoy Aquino International
Airport.
They will be questioned over their role in the
official travel of Lozada to Hong Kong and his airport reception
last week, when he was met and taken by authorities, supposedly
against his will.
Earlier, Lozada had testified that Atienza and
Defensor convinced him to leave the country, while Gaite prepared
his “antedated” travel order to attend a seminar in Hong Kong,
so he can have an excuse to skip the Senate hearing on the broadband
scandal. For his part, Atutubo, accompanied by four officials, was
supposedly the person who grabbed Lozada.
Senators are skeptical that the government
officials will attend, given that the Palace has maneuvered to keep
them from attending previous hearings.
“I don’t expect the authorities to
cooperate,” Senate President Manuel Villar said. “I asked for
tapes of the closed circuit monitor on Lozada’s arrival, but I did
not get any. We will definitely not stop even if the authorities do
not cooperate with us.”
Palace green light
Malacañang will allow government officials to
attend today’s Senate hearing on the national broadband
project—except Chairman Neri of the Commission on Higher
Education—Anthony Golez Jr., deputy press secretary, told radio
startion dzBB Sunday.
Neri was formerly director-general of the
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), which reviewed
the broadband project. In his Senate testimony, Neri divulged an
alleged P200-million bribe offered to him by former Chairman
Benjamin Abalos Sr. of the Commission on Elections (Comelec). He
denied those charges. (See related front-page story.)
Neri will not attend, because his case is
pending before the Supreme Court, Golez explained. Neri had refused
to disclose information about his conversations with President
Gloria Arroyo about the anomalous deal, which he said were covered
by executive privilege.
Neri had filed a petition before the Supreme
Court questioning the legality of Senate’s order compelling him to
attend the inquiry. The Palace has been insisting that a previous
High Court ruling only allows executive branch’s participation in
congressional hearings if certain conditions are met.
The radio report said Atienza, Gaite, Razon and
airport officials will attend today’s hearing.
DOTC denies
Meanwhile, the Department of Transportation and
Communications (DOTC) belied Lozada’s allegations, saying the
President’s husband, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, and Abalos did
not meddle in the broadband project.
Secretary Leandro Mendoza of the DOTC insisted
that the $330-million loan deal with China’s ZTE Corp., which was
eventually scrapped by President Arroyo last year, was not
overpriced.
He also defended ZTE’s contract during last
week’s press conference in Malacañang, arguing that a loan
agreement with the Chinese government is cheaper than a
build-operate-transfer scheme proposed by Jose “Joey” de Venecia
3rd. His firm, Amsterdam Holdings Inc., was one of the losing
proponents in the deal.
The previous $262-million project cost, Mendoza
explained, will only cover 30 percent of the country, noting that
about $330 million is a reasonable price since its coverage is
nationwide.
Mendoza said that if they were to follow the
computations of de Venecia’s offer, a nationwide coverage for a
national broadband will cost more than $500 million.
“Joey’s proposal was so deficient,”
Transportation Undersecretary Lorenzo Formoso said. “They didn’t
have money. They didn’t have a franchise, so how can they operate
a telecom company. Second, under the BOT [build-operate-transfer]
Law, an unsolicited proposal is not allowed for priority projects
such as the NBN [national broadband network].”
CBCP commends
The influential Catholic Bishops’ Conference
of the Philippines (CBCP) has expressed its deep appreciation and
respect to former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. and Lozada for coming
out in the open and exposing the alleged high level of corruption in
the government.
De Venecia, father of his namesake, Joey de
Venecia, called for a “moral revolution” just before he was
voted out of office as Speaker of the House of Representatives last
week.
CBCP president, Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo,
said Sunday that what the two government officials did was a
“courageous” act that should be emulated by every Filipino to
effect a moral revolution and put an end to systemic graft and
corruption in the country.
It was courageous, Lagdameo pointed out, because
de Venecia and Lozada placed the nation’s interest above their own
so the people may know the whole truth.
“It was courageous to come out in the open to
‘publicly confess’ the high level of graft and corruption that
they knew all along and ‘somehow’ have been involved in,”
Lagdameo said. “But it was also damaging to their political career
as well as to significant others who are in high governance.
Damaging also because they opened themselves to further scrutiny and
inquiry.”
“We have to confess that corruption is in
truth our greatest shame as a people,” he said, adding that the
call for a moral revolution has deep implication and must be
supported.
“Only the truth, not lies and deceits, will
set our country free. This truth challenges us now to communal
action,” he added.
-- With Angelo S. Samonte, Francis Earl A. Cueto and William B.
Depasupil
|
