Arroyo’s Defense in ZTE Mess Weak, Says Pimentel

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Q. Pimentel,
Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said President Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo’ belated defense of herself in the national
broadband controversy is weak and only betrays her
poor sense of judgment and responsibility in
preventing irregularities in government projects.

Pimentel said the President, by her own revelation,
was told by a person she did not identify about the
serious flaws in the $329 million national broadband
network contract granted to China’s ZTE Corp. on the
eve of her trip to Boao, China to witness the signing
of the ZTE-NBN deal and other bilateral agreements in
April, 2007.

And yet, Pimentel said Mrs. Arroyo did not lift a
finger to stop or suspend the questionable contract at
that time. He said the President, by her act of
omission, seemed unmindful of the harm that will be
inflicted on the government by such a grossly
anomalous deal.

“What GMA did or did not do after she learned that
something was wrong with the ZTE-NBN deal on the eve
of its signing is the smoking gun that links her to
the scandal,” he said.

“That’s also what Secretary Romulo Neri doesn’t want
to supply.”

Pimentel said the President’s revelation clearly
belies the claim of Neri, chairman of the Commission
on Higher Education, that he had nothing more to say
about the ZTE-NBN scandal as his justification for
repeatedly ignoring the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s
summons for him to return to the witness stand.

He said the President’s mishandling of the national
broadband project was first unraveled when Neri, as
then director-general of the National Economic and
Development Authority, reported to her the alleged
attempt of then Commission on Elections Chairman
Benjamin Abalos to bribe him with P200 million in
exchange for the endorsement of the ZTE-NBN project by
the NEDA-Investment Coordinating Committee.
Testimonies obtained during the Senate hearings
indicated that President did not act to have the
alleged bribery try investigated.

Pimentel said the President has yet to explain why she
deviated from her position to have the NBN project
done through the build-operate and transfer scheme
that will entail no expense on the part of the
government. Instead, the President approved the
proposal to finance the project from loans that the
Philippine government will secure from China’s
Export-Import Bank.

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