JDV III HAS NO REGRETS BLOWING WHISTLE ON NBN DEAL
MANILA, APRIL 28, 2008 (STAR) By Rainier Allan Ronda - A little over a year after spilling the beans on the government’s National Broadband Network (NBN) deal with a Chinese firm, businessman Jose “Joey” de Venecia III said he does not have any regrets blowing the whistle on the bribery-ridden contract.“If I had to do it all over again, I’d still do what I did. I would make the same decisions,” said the son and namesake of former Speaker of the House of Representatives Jose de Venecia Jr.
“I don’t regret anything,” the younger De Venecia said.
While he admitted the outcome of his crusade still paled beside the rampant corruption in the government, De Venecia said he considered his effort of revealing the bribery behind the NBN deal before the Senate inquiry had been very instrumental in the cancellation of the contract.
“Some people would ask me in interviews and in public fora: what did I get for all that happened? Well, I’d tell them that I saved the Filipino people from unnecessarily paying about P16 billion,” De Venecia said.
De Venecia added the P26.48 billion Cyber Education Project (CEP) that was itself also being questioned for being hugely expensive, was put on hold along with 11 other government flagship projects supposed to be funded by overseas development assistance loans from foreign governments.
A year has pas-sed since the NBN deal between the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and China’s ZTE Corp. was signed in Boao, China on April 21, 2007.
The signing of the contract, witnessed by no less than President Arroyo, went largely unnoticed by the public.
But for De Venecia, that day marked the moment that would greatly change his life.
De Venecia last year testified before the Senate that the President’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo told him to “back off” from pursuing the project. De Venecia co-owns Amsterdam Holdings Inc., which submitted a proposal for the NBN project.
De Venecia also claimed Mr. Arroyo was asking a $70-million “commission” from the project.
Another witness, former government consultant Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada corroborated portions of De Venecia’s statements before the Senate. He claimed former elections chief Benjamin Abalos talked to Mr. Arroyo on the cellular phone complaining about the reluctance of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) headed by Secretary Romulo Neri to place the NBN project under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) scheme.
De Venecia revealed Abalos had brokered for ZTE to corner the US$329-million NBN project.
He said Abalos had received million dollar payoffs from ZTE and had even tried to get more in one meeting with the company’s officials in China.
“My life has completely changed because of it. It has changed my life drastically,” De Venecia noted.
While his testimony has given him virtual celebrity status, De Venecia’s revelations caused the political fallout between his father and Mrs. Arroyo. It also marked the end of the era of the elder De Venecia as the longest serving Speaker of the House of Representatives.
De Venecia says he is aware that he is now a target of government vengeance. He has limited his business activities to foreign countries, far from the Philippine government’s adverse intervention, and has taken precautionary measures to protect his life and family.
De Venecia now employs several bodyguards and became consciousness of furtive strangers following his every move as he goes about his daily business.
“I used to have no bodyguards even if my father was the fourth highest official of the land. Now I have to have bodyguards,” he said.
He said keeping the bodyguards is very expensive for him.
“It makes a big strain on the overhead,” De Venecia quipped.
With all the difficulties he and his family are facing, De Venecia said that he will still continue his advocacy against corruption in the government.
He said he will also remain vigilant against any move of the government, especially the DOTC, to revive the NBN project carrying the same provisions in the DOTC-ZTE contract that made it financially disadvantageous to the interest of the Filipinos.
Reported by: Sol Jose Vanzi
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