GORDON AGREES TO SUBMIT NBN REPORT AFTER VISIT OF JDV SON
MANILA, NOVEMBER 12, 2009 (STAR) Senate Blue Ribbon committee chairman Sen. Richard Gordon agreed yesterday to submit to the Office of the Ombudsman the final report of the investigation on the canceled national broadband network (NBN) contract of the government with Chinese firm ZTE Corp. after he was visited by one of the whistleblowers in the deal, businessman Joey de Venecia III.De Venecia went to the Senate the other day with a letter asking Gordon to release the final report on the investigation.
The committee held its final hearing on the NBN-ZTE deal last Sept.1.
De Venecia and Gordon had a heated exchange over the businessman’s claim that the senator had prejudged the case.
The unscheduled meeting between De Venecia and Gordon was held in a more cordial atmosphere. After a brief chat on the Senate floor, Gordon asked his staff to retrieve the final copy of the report.
For De Venecia, the release of the report is the culmination of a two-year odyssey to ferret out the truth in what has been called the “Mother of All Scandals.”
The son and namesake of former speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. had accused First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo and former Commission on Elections chief Benjamin Abalos of conspiring to guarantee that ZTE Corp. would bag the deal even if the younger De Venecia was the original proponent who had submitted a superior proposal.
De Venecia had criticized Gordon for issuing statements that he and his father should also be charged in the NBN-ZTE deal.
The young De Venecia had reminded Gordon that the Ombudsman had cleared him and he had also been wrongfully charged, being a private citizen who never held a government post.
“It really doesn’t matter if Sen. Gordon has prejudged me by saying I was guilty even after the Ombudsman cleared me. What’s more important is that the committee report be released for the people to judge for themselves if its findings are valid,” he added.
De Venecia said he was worried that with election fever heating up, the NBN-ZTE scandal would be swept under the rug.
The young De Venecia testified that he was offered P500 million to back off and allow the ZTE contract to push through.
He revealed the results of the scam before the Blue Ribbon panel two years ago and President Arroyo was forced to cancel the NBN-ZTE contract.
In his letter to Gordon, the younger De Venecia said, “I am sure that you will agree with me that this issue needs closure. The role played by the person whom I consider the mastermind of the NBN-ZTE deal, First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, has yet to be determined. The Filipino people are looking at the Senate to prove that there are no untouchables in this administration.”
He said that unless the Blue Ribbon committee releases its report soonest, the biggest scandal involving the government would be overtaken by events.
“The culpability, if any, of President Gloria Arroyo will never be determined,” he said.
De Venecia said releasing the report soonest would give Gordon a “golden opportunity to prove his independence.”
“I think you will agree with me that the NBN-ZTE deal should not be treated as a political issue. Corruption in the highest places must not be allowed to pass. I am appealing to you to release the Blue Ribbon report on the scandal at the soonest possible time,” De Venecia said.
'Whistle-blowers should be spared' By Aurea Calica (The Philippine Star) Updated November 12, 2009 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - A group of senators said yesterday whistle-blowers Rodolfo Lozada Jr. and businessman Jose de Venecia III should be spared from prosecution in connection with the anomalous $329-million national broadband network deal with ZTE Corp. of China, contrary to the recommendation of the chamber’s Blue Ribbon committee.
This developed as Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno claimed that on President Arroyo’s orders, he had directed the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group to investigate the alleged bribery in the ZTE deal. The CIDG has no jurisdiction over corruption cases.
“As the sponsor of the privilege speech that triggered the ZTE investigation and responsible, directly or indirectly in convincing Jun Lozada to come out and testify in the Senate investigation, I cannot support a committee report that will discourage future whistleblowers from blowing the lid and testifying against powerful and influential persons committing large-scale graft such as the NBN-ZTE deal,” Sen. Panfilo Lacson said.
“I don’t think Jun (Lozada) and Joey (de Venecia) should be included (among those to be charged),” Sen. Francis Escudero said.
“They both did a heroic act and we might be discouraging whistleblowers if they are included,” Escudero said.
But Lacson and Escudero signed the report with reservations along with Blue Ribbon committee chairman Richard Gordon, senators Edgardo Angara, Joker Arroyo, Gregorio Honasan, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Francis Pangilinan, Pia Cayetano, Jamby Madrigal, Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada and Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel.
During the Senate hearings on the issue, De Venecia III testified that then elections chief Benjamin Abalos offered then socio-economic secretary Romulo Neri a P200-million bribe to endorse ZTE Corp. as contractor. Neri confirmed this in his testimony.
However, it was Lozada who revealed in detail the irregularities in the bidding process for the NBN deal.
Lacson said he would only support the recommendation to file charges against President Arroyo, First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo and the others involved in the NBN mess.
“Joey de Venecia and Jun Lozada should be used as a state witnesses,” Pimentel said for his part.
“It appears even the allies of the President in the Senate have seen the light of day and have found (Mrs. Arroyo) to have been wanting in the manner she conducted herself as chief executor of the laws in the NBN-ZTE deal,” Pangilinan said.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile also said the committee could only recommend further investigation but not prosecution because of the President’s immunity from suit.
Senators Miriam Santiago and Arroyo said the committee report has rendered futile any effort to pin down the President over the botched deal.
“The malpractice cannot go on. It must be corrected. Otherwise, the inutility of these investigations will become more and more apparent and the public will lose faith in its usefulness and will look at it only for entertainment value,” Arroyo said.
“We cannot investigate the president anymore because this November is deadline (for filing of certificates of candidacy… Congress will be taken up with budget hearings and our conference committees shall wait and then it shall be the start of the campaign period,” Santiago said.
“The committee report is well written, is exhaustive but I felt it is half-baked in some of its conclusions,” Cayetano said.
He also said the report took a “very strong” stand against the whistleblowers.
Gordon, meanwhile, defended the committee report. “I am willing to be interpolated and that’s the way it is because I am the ponente. As far as I am concerned I am going to stand by my recommendation,” Gordon said.
Ready
Lozada declared yesterday he is ready to go to jail if proven guilty of involvement in the $329-million NBN deal anomaly but only if President Arroyo would be with him.
Lozada said the recommendation by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee to further investigate Mrs. Arroyo and file graft charges against First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo was a “mere slap on the wrist” of the First Couple.
For his part, De Venecia III said he is ready to face the First Gentleman and Abalos in court.
Lozada stressed it was clear how the allies of the First Couple lied before the public to conceal the truth about the NBN deal with the Chinese firm, ZTE Corp.
He noted that former National Economic and Development Authority director general Romulo Neri even had to go to the Supreme Court so he would not be compelled to testify on Mrs. Arroyo’s role in approving the NBN project to accommodate her husband and Abalos.
Lozada also said he was kidnapped at the airport upon his arrival from Hong Kong so he would not testify at the Senate, which issued an arrest warrant against him and Neri.
“We’re not blind to the truth. For Filipinos who still value the truth, I hope they should not accept this brazen lie,” Lozada said in Filipino.
Lozada was chief of the Philippine Forest Corp. at the time of the NBN issue.
See you in court
De Venecia III said he has no regrets testifying against the First Gentleman and Abalos on the anomalous NBN deal.
“I am not surprised. Senator Dick Gordon had already prejudged the case by earlier saying I was part of the dirty deal, when in fact I was the victim,” De Venecia said.
“If I had backed off as the First Gentleman ordered, I would have been P500 million richer, which was the bribe offered to me by Mr. Abalos to keep silent,” De Venecia III said.
“Instead, I find myself being accused of taking part in their conspiracy,” he said.
The Blue Ribbon committee said the De Venecias must be charged with violation of Section 5 of RA 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act prohibiting relatives of officials from entering into government contracts or transactions.
The report said De Venecia III spilled the beans because he did not bag the project which was instead given to ZTE under an executive agreement between the Philippines and China.
Indignant
“It is outrageous. It is unacceptable. It is unbelievable. It is something that cannot be understood by logical thinking people… We are maddened by this,” Sr. Mary John Mananzan, co-chair of the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines (AMRSP), said of Lozada’s and Joey’s inclusion in the Senate’s list of those being recommended for prosecution.
“The Ombudsman should now move to have this investigated. The wheels of justice grind slowly here,” Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo said in Filipino.
Tagbilaran Bishop Leonardo Medroso said the release of the committee report showed that “morality works in the Senate.”
Opposition leader and Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay said he is glad the Senate committee has come out with its report but said Lozada and De Venecia III should not have been included in the list of those recommended for prosecution.
“It is just sad that the committee has recommended charging even those who stepped forward and risked their lives and the safety of their family,” Binay said referring to Lozada and De Venecia III.
Binay, president of the United Opposition (UNO) and who is running as vice president to former President Estrada in 2010 elections, also said it remains to be seen if the Ombudsman would act on the Blue Ribbon committee report.
Impeachment unlikely
Impeaching President Arroyo this year is no longer possible, Speaker Prospero Nograles said yesterday.
“Frankly, I think that as of now, nobody would seem inclined to endorse such an impeachment complaint because of lack of material time. It is not practicable,” he said.
He said the chance of impeaching Mrs. Arroyo “are two – slim and none.”
Nograles was commenting on the recommendation of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee that Mrs. Arroyo should be impeached in connection with the controversial ZTE-NBN deal.
At Malacañang, deputy presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo said the president is ready to face another impeachment case.
“If there will be an attempt at impeachment, we will be ready for that,” she said.
“We’re not worried that this may be used—just like other issues—to advance the political agenda of anybody,” she said.
Mrs. Arroyo’s House allies have voted down all impeachment cases filed against her every year since 2005. A new complaint may be filed against her only after Nov. 26, or in two weeks, when her one-year protection from impeachment expires.
Nograles said even if a new case is filed and endorsed by at least one congressman, the House has no more time to dispose of it.
Defending GMA
Other House allies of Mrs. Arroyo cautioned her detractors against filing another impeachment complaint.
“The Ombudsman found that the President is immune (from suit). Motions for reconsideration are also pending. Let’s allow the Ombudsman to finish her job,” Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo said.
“Insofar as President Arroyo is concerned, the last impeachment complaint against her included the ZTE-NBN deal as cause of action in the complaint. It was dismissed by the HOR but the others let the Ombudsman look into it,” House Deputy Speaker for Mindanao Rep. Simeon Datumanong said.
For Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, the Senate report was full of “mere allegations and were full of just hearsay.”
For his part, Marikina Rep. Marcelino Teodoro said the Senate’s move was “malicious in intent.”
“The graft charges should have been filed long ago since this is the only reasonable move to be done by the Senate,” Teodoro said.
“Why now when the political foes of President Arroyo are finding ways to tear her down to prop up their interest and ambition,” said lone Camiguin Rep. Pedro Romualdo, a stalwart of Lakas-Kampi-CMD.
“I’m just wondering what prompted Senator Gordon to turn President Arroyo into a dart board at this particular time,” Romualdo, chair of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, said.
“If they think they will get elected just because they bashed the President, then, they are mistaken,” Baguio City Rep. Mauricio Domogan said.
Christmas gift
For House opposition members, the Senate Blue Ribbon committee report was an early Christmas gift to Filipinos especially if a new impeachment case is filed against the president.
“The House is given the opportunity to give the Filipino people a great Christmas gift by initiating impeachment proceedings against President Arroyo, and the chance to impeach her before the end of the year,” Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo said.
“There could have been no other credible result to the Senate investigations. It would have been a great disservice to the Filipino people’s continuing campaign against corruption in government had the Senate declared Arroyo innocent,” Ocampo said.
“The committee report all the more substantiates and justifies the call from various sectors that President Arroyo be put on criminal trial as soon as she is out of office and no longer has immunity,” he said.
But his colleague, Neri Colmenares, said the report is “good but disappointing.”
“By merely charging both President Arroyo and First Gentleman Miguel Arroyo for acts constitutive of a waterhole or culpable violation of the Constitution without specifying the crime/s that President Arroyo should be charged with for her role in the scandal, the report may be used to exculpate her and her husband,” he said.
Not surprised?
Former elections chief Benjamin Abalos said he was not surprised by the Blue Ribbon committee’s recommendation.
“It’s fait accompli. It’s redundant. I’ve already been charged. I’ve been expecting that (recommendation) since Senate has been so mean and hostile to me. They treated me harshly (when I attended the hearing). The worst has been done to me,” he told The STAR.
Environment Secretary Lito Atienza, for his part, appealed to senators for “better judgment” and called the Blue Ribbon’s recommendation an “injustice.”
He said his inclusion in the Blue Ribbon list was politically motivated.
“The political season is coming in, and political virus in the country is spreading,” he said.
“He knows me better, he knows my family better,” Atienza also said, referring to Gordon. “I’ve never done anything illegal in my life,” he added.
“I was saddened by this report because Gordon seemingly did not listen to the truth during the public hearings, interpreting everything to his own opinion,” Atienza noted.
“Lozada asked for my help as an official of the DENR to attend to that convention and it is his right,” he said. “Can you prevent someone if he wants to exercise his rights?”
Social Security System (SSS) president Romulo Neri declined to comment on the Blue Ribbon report saying he has yet to receive a copy of the recommendation.
“I have not read it yet. I am trying to get a copy so I will know the grounds,” he said in a text message to The STAR.
Meanwhile, the Office of the Ombudsman said the case against the First Couple regarding ZTE is still ongoing.
Assistant Ombudsman Jose de Jesus Jr. said the special panel tasked to investigate the case is still looking into the motions for reconsideration filed by concerned parties.
“Bukas na bukas pa ang kaso (The case is very much open),” he told reporters at a press conference. “If there is basis, it can be changed.” With Jess Diaz, Delon Porcalla, Katherine Adraneda, Sheila Crisostomo, Michael Punongbayan, Jose Rodel Clapano, Lawrence Agcaoili, Paolo Romero, Dennis Carcamo, Cecille Suerte Felipe, and Evelyn Macairan
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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