MANILA, Philippines - President Arroyo defended yesterday her role in the canceled $329-million national broadband network (NBN) contract with ZTE Corp. of China even as the Office of the Ombudsman was set to review the Senate report recommending the prosecution of nearly everyone involved in the deal, including First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo.
The report said Mrs. Arroyo had “a lot to answer for.”
In her speech at the management conference of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) in Tagaytay City, Mrs. Arroyo detailed how she had the scandal-tainted contract canceled even if the investigation she had ordered on the alleged corruption proved inconclusive.
She said the cost-effective buildup of the country’s information and communications technology (ICT) was the reason why the Philippines sought financing from China to set up an NBN project.
Mrs. Arroyo said when then socio-economic planning secretary Romulo Neri informed her of a bribery attempt “involving a constitutional officer not under the administrative supervisory jurisdiction of the President of the Philippines,” she immediately ordered Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno to have the matter “discreetly investigated.”
The constitutional officer she was referring to was former Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos. Neri testified at a Senate hearing that Abalos insinuated that he had reserved P200 million for him (Neri).
The President said Ermita ordered National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales to investigate the allegation while Puno conducted his own.
“The findings reported back to me were inconclusive. Nevertheless, for the sake of propriety, I moved to cancel the project,” Mrs. Arroyo said.
“Unfortunately, there are a lot of unsubstantiated allegations, gossip and innuendoes mixed up with the facts of the case. This is part of our immature political system; it’s part of our immature institutions. And this immaturity hurts the growth of the nation,” she said.
She said the media could help clarify the issues and ensure greater accountability.
Mrs. Arroyo said the Philippines badly needs an ICT network that would help fuel its growth.
“If centuries ago, there was an agricultural revolution, then there was an industrial revolution, now we have an ICT revolution. And there’s no stopping ICT from becoming the wave of our future whether in your industry or in any other industry. Our country should use it to enhance competitiveness, and I know you use it to enhance yours,” she said.
Deputy presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo said the Palace was not worried by the move of the Ombudsman to review the Senate report even if it had earlier cleared the First Couple of any wrongdoing.
“But whatever their (Ombudsman) decision might be, then we would be ready. President Arroyo’s lawyers or legal advisers would be ready to defend her. But we have very little time left already, so I think it would be better for our officials, particularly our lawmakers, if we could adjust our priorities in Congress, like the passing of the budget for 2010,” she said.
Meanwhile, several senators are withholding their signatures on the Senate Blue Ribbon committee’s report on the NBN deal anomaly without close scrutiny of the President’s role in the approval of the project.
Sen. Joker Arroyo said the NBN project was doomed to fail from its inception because it had been found that it would be best left to the private sector because the government could not effectively implement it.
Senators Alan Peter Cayetano, Manuel Roxas II and Benigno Aquino III said they would have to check first the contents of the report and see if it would be useful to prosecute those liable even under the next administration since the current one could block their prosecution.
Cayetano said he would come out with a minority report by next week as he pointed out the overpricing must be established, whether the project was really needed and why Mrs. Arroyo allowed it.
Roxas said it was very clear that Mrs. Arroyo did not protect the interest of the nation even if the bribery was reported to her.
“Nobody was fired. There was no investigation,” Roxas said.
Roxas also said Mrs. Arroyo used her executive privilege to conceal how the approval of the project was arrived at. He said records from the National Economic and Development Authority should have been made available to the public for scrutiny.
Roxas and Aquino said the President must explain why a project under a build-operate-transfer scheme became an executive agreement between the Philippines and China.
“There should be no sovereign guarantee, why was this overturned? I don’t know what’s in the report. I think the press release came out before the report,” Aquino said.
Senator Arroyo said before the imposition of martial law, the government already implemented a communication project involving a telephone system to connect government offices
in the country but it turned out to be a colossal failure. With Aurea Calica
By Paolo Romero
The Philippine Star
Updated November 13, 2009 12:00 AM
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