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President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s men came in full force at
the Senate hearing yesterday on the National Broadband Network
project of ZTE Corp. of China which was aborted by her last year.
They included Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito
Atienza, Deputy Executive Secretary Manuel Gaite, former
Presidential Management Staff Chief Michael Defensor, the chief of
the Philippine National Police Avelino Razon, private lawyer Antonio
Bautista, and the chief of the airport.
The President’s men were claiming government
authorities didn’t abduct or kidnap or hold against his will
consultant Rodolfo Noel “Jun” Lozada as soon as he landed at the
Manila airport in the afternoon on Feb. 5, Tuesday to prevent him
from testifying before the Senate regarding the NBN ZTE deal. There
was no kidnapping, no obstruction of justice.
The men were trying to dispute or discredit what
“Jun” Lozada had told the same Senate body when he testified on
Friday, Feb. 8. In that hearing, Lozada indicated he was taken
against his will at the airport tarmac in the afternoon of Tuesday,
Feb.5, made to ride a Toyota car unknown to him, driven by a person
unknown to him and where he was joined by another person unknown to
him. The man was apparently armed and constantly making phone and
radio contact with other mysterious people. The stranger even told
Lozada that he is able to monitor all his (Lozada’s) texts and
calls. Lozada sat in the back of the car, alone, but it was trailed
by several other vehicles. He was literally taken for a ride for
several hours to various places in Metro Manila and nearby provinces
Laguna and Cavite. Late in the evening the following day, Feb. 6, he
was brought to La Salle Greenhills. At 2 a.m., Feb. 7, he gave a
press conference covered live on television.
At 10 a.m. Feb. 8, Lozada related his ordeal
before the Senate and made a number of shocking revelations. Then-NEDA
Director General Romulo Neri advised him to “moderate their
greed,” a reference apparently to resigned Comelec Chair Benjamin
Abalos trying to collect $130-million “commission” on a project
that should have cost just $132 million. Because of Abalos’s
insistence on his commission, the project cost rose to $232 million.
Because of Abalos’s insistence that the project be financed by a
loan from China, the project cost rose further to $329 million,
apparently to accommodate other people who wanted a share of the fun
or fund. As a result, as claimed by Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr.
before his ouster on Feb. 4, 2008, the NBN project was overpriced by
$200 million.
At the Feb. 8 Senate hearing, Lozada implied
that greed that is moderate is a 22-percent commission, the ratio
applied when a $70-million bribe was allegedly taken from the
SouthRail project, from Manila to Calamba to Bicol. Lozada had
suggested that perhaps the $130-million Abalos commission could be
cut to $65 million. For six hours on Feb. 8, Lozada made two major
points—his apparent kidnapping at the airport and the overprice on
the aborted NBN ZTE contract.
To me, the issue is not the attempted kidnapping
(yes, there was, despite lawyer Antonio Bautista’s claim as
Lozada’s limited vocabulary) but the overpricing of the NBN
contract. The issue is Ben Abalos trying to collect a $130 million
in a telecommunications deal that has no relevance whatsoever to his
work as Comelec chairman.
The issue is whether the First Gentleman was
really involved in the contract (in fairness to him, his name should
be cleared if he is not guilty).
The pivot person then is Abalos. At this point
“Abalos” is now synonymous with greed, graft, corruption in high
places. At Google, there are now 181,000 entries on “Abalos,”
most of them and the most recent of which is about the ZTE mess. In
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Abalos is cited in four major
scandals—the impeachment against him in September 2007, the ZTE
broadband controversy, Hello Garci, and Mega Pacific’s
P1.3-billion contract for automated counting machines. As these
scandals unwind, the unfavorable entries on Abalos will lengthen
further, good enough to circumnavigate the globe.
My suggestion is that Abalos should come clean.
Tell the truth. Do not obfuscate. Your name is at stake. The name of
your children and your grandchildren is at stake. If you truly love
your family, do it for them. If you are truly a public servant, do
it for the people. If you are a true patriot, do it for the country.
There is no other choice, Ben. You will be hanged, anyway.
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