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Malacañang denied that it is blocking the appearance of a new
witness in the controversial national broadband deal at the
resumption of Senate hearings today.
Reportedly, the surprise witness is Rodolfo
Lozada, the chief executive officer of Philippine Forest Corp. and a
consultant to Romulo Neri.
He was expected to corroborate the testimony of
businessman Joey de Venecia 3rd and directly implicate government
officials involved in the scrapped $330-million broadband deal
forged with China’s ZTE Corp. last year.
However, Lozada is no longer appearing at the
Senate hearing, said Sen. Panfilo Lacson, claiming he has been
harassed by Malacañang and is now facing threats after his name was
leaked by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, chairman of the Senate
blue-ribbon committee.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the
Palace has nothing to do with the alleged threats being received by
the new witness to prevent him from testifying. He added Malacanang
doesn’t even know the background of the witness.
“I understand the fellow is connected with an
agency, connected with DENR [Department of Environment and Natural
Resources], but we have to find out what is the background . . . he
has to consult [with] his principal, the secretary of the DENR,
before testifying,” he said.
Ermita added that they want to find out the
purpose of the Senate inquiry since the ZTE deal was already
scrapped by President Gloria Arroyo last year.
Earlier, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio
Apostol said the Senate can revive its probe on the issue and call
all the “surprise witnesses” it wants. But Apostol said that
would be a big “waste of time” and a ploy to boost the image of
senators planning to run in 2010.
Lacson said the witness had received several
threats from people identified with Malacañang, but added “I hope
he can still stand up [and] present whatever testimony he will
give.”
Meanwhile, an exasperated Howard Xue, ZTE Global
Marketing Director, had asked the Senate to leave his company out of
its “political circus” since its deal with the government was
already revoked.
-- Angelo S. Samonte, Francis Earl A. Cueto and Sammy Martin
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