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By Efren L. Danao, Senior Reporter
Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. on Thursday
said the Senate will provide security to Dante Madriaga, the walk-in
witness to the aborted $330-million national broadband network
project, “whether he is a Trojan horse or not.”
This came as the technical working group of the
Senate blue-ribbon committee grilled Madriaga on Thursday to check
his reliability as a witness over concerns aired by Sen. Francis
Pangilinan.
Villar said he has instructed the blue-ribbon
and the Senate sergeant-at-arms to make security arrangements for
Madriaga, his wife and their seven children. The Senate
sergeant-at-arms was unprepared for the sudden arrival of Madriaga,
such that he was not even given anything for breakfast at past 8
a.m., Wednesday, his first day at the Senate.
“It is important that we show our value for
the rare breed of men by taking care of them and placing them out of
harm’s way so others will have the courage to step forward too,”
Villar said.
The technical working group repeatedly asked
Madriaga for details of his Tuesday testimony before the blue-ribbon
in a bid to determine his consistency and reliability.
Madriaga, a former consultant to ZTE Corp., said
he had put the security of his family at risk by volunteering to
testify. ZTE Corp. of China won the contract for the broadband
project.
He said his support group composed of former
classmates at the Don Bosco, members of his fraternity, and the
Rotary will desert him should he recant everything that he had said.
Madriaga told the blue ribbon on Tuesday that
President Gloria Arroyo and her husband, Jose Miguel “Mike”
Arroyo, benefited from the “overprice” in the broadband deal.
He also told the working group that ZTE did not
actually need any Filipino consultant but just the same, his bosses
placed him there because they wanted to protect their interest in
the project. His “bosses” were San Miguel, retired Gen. Quirino
dela Torre and, above them, former Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. of
the Commission on Elections and Ruben Reyes, whom he identified as a
golfing buddy of Abalos.
The blue ribbon will resume its investigation on
Thursday or Friday next week, with former socioeconomic planning
Secretary Romulo Neri as possible witness, depending on the decision
of the Supreme Court on a case filed by Neri against the Senate.
Neri’s petition questioning the Senate’s authority to summon him
will be heard by the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
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