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A Senate inquiry into a $330-million broadband project with
China’s ZTE Corp. will continue despite a recent Supreme Court
decision that the contract is invalid and need not be nullified, a
lawmaker said Tuesday.
“The Supreme Court merely looked into the
constitutionality and legality of the contract. It did not look into
violations of the anti-graft law, which is the focus of the probe by
the blue-ribbon committee,” Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano told The
Manila Times during a telephone interview.
The government, though, hoped that the Senate
would give the investigation a rest.
“Why do these people [senators] continue to
talk about it [broadband project] when in fact [President Gloria
Arroyo] already cancelled the project,” Executive Secretary
Eduardo Ermita said also on Tuesday. “The [Supreme Court] made a
decision, by an 11-3 vote, which was an overwhelming one. We can
only say hail to the highest court of the land for putting [a
closure to] the issue. I hope the senators would take a cue from the
decision.”
Malacañang earlier said the ruling of the High
Court was indeed not final and executory.
More testimonies
Cayetano, chairman of the Senate committee, said
the panel will not wrap up its inquiry until it obtains complete
data on the contract. He added that the testimony of former Speaker
Jose de Venecia Jr. would enable the committee to come up with a
report.
Cayetano pointed out that de Venecia was present
when President Gloria Arroyo met with officials of ZTE Corp. in
Zhenshen, China, during her state visit to China in October 2007. He
did not say what would make the data complete.
“We will resume our investigation in August,
when Speaker de Venecia said he would be available as witness,”
Cayetano said.
De Venecia had promised but failed to testify at
the Senate inquiry. Cayetano said he had been waiting for the former
House Speaker to appear for the last six months.
“I had cancelled many appointments and
hearings waiting for him. If he would not appear in August, I will
consult our members if we should prepare our committee report
without [de Venecia’s testimony]. We cannot wait forever,” he
added.
Sergio Apostol, the chief presidential legal
counsel, said he doubts that the former House leader will show up
before the Cayetano committee, because de Venecia would rather
protect his reputation.
”I believe that he will not testify. Why
should he destroy his name? I don’t think he will do that,”
Apostol pointed out. Besides, he said, the former House Speaker is a
“statesman and, if he is a statesman, he will not testify.”
Apostol advised de Venecia to help the country
instead of starting trouble.
He said the political opposition was insisting
on the probe for media hype, because, he added, some of its members
will be running for President in 2010.
Apostol said the investigation will amount to
nothing since the $330-million broadband project was cancelled by
the President in 2007. Also, Mrs. Arroyo “will not run [for
President] in 2010, so this investigation will be useless.”
On Suplico, Lozada
Deputy Presidential Spokesman Lorelei Fajardo
twitted Vice Gov. Rolex Suplico of Iloilo and witness Rodolfo Noel
Lozada Jr. for “speculating” about a supposedly new broadband
deal in the works. One of the three petitions questioning the
validity of the broadband project was filed by Suplico, who belongs
to the opposition.
“It’s hard to make claims based on
speculations. Lozada and Suplico are trying to preempt the President
and the government’s decision on the matter,” Fajardo said
during a radio interview.
Lozada, in previous Senate hearings on the
broadband project, linked the First Family and a few of its
political allies to alleged bribery in the project. The Arroyos and
former poll chief Benjamin Abalos Sr. denied accusations that they
had any involvement in the broadband project.
President’s word
Cayetano, reacting to the decision of the High
Court that was handed down on Monday, said the justices merely
relied on the word of the President that the contract with ZTE Corp.
had already been revoked.
“A contract can be rescinded only with the
consent of both parties. No document has been presented showing such
mutual consent,” he noted.
News reports said Mrs. Arroyo had informed the
President of China that the Philippine government cancelled the
Chinese-funded broadband project on October 2, 2007, and that the
Chinese leader had accepted her decision.
Sen. Joker Arroyo likened the blue-ribbon
committee to a “petrified fossil in a dance hall waiting to be
danced [around] by Speaker de Venecia in his sweet time.”
He said the blue-ribbon inquiry had been
overtaken by two decisions of the Supreme Court on cases related to
the broadband project—the executive privilege and the
instant-nullification case. The Supreme Court ruled that then
socioeconomic planning Secretary Romulo Neri had invoked executive
privilege correctly in refusing to reveal his conversations with the
President about the broadband deal before the blue-ribbon committee.
“On the other hand, the Senate tri-committee
whose combined membership consists practically of the entire
membership of the Senate, although it started its investigation
earlier, has not released any kind of report, much less even discuss
it,” Senator Arroyo said.
He had been urging the blue-ribbon panel and the
secondary committees in the Senate probe of the broadband contract
to come up with a committee report.
“The Senate must be mindful not to be overcome
or overtaken by events, to be trapped in the quicksand of
irrelevance,” Senator Arroyo said.
-- Efren L. Danao and Angelo S. Samonte
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