ZTE denies Madriaga's bribery allegation

China's ZTE Corporation on Wednesday denied the claim of Dante Madriaga, a witness in the Senate inquiry on the national broadband network mess, that the corporation advanced $41 million to the Philippine government to get the NBN project. "ZTE reiterates that it did not bribe anyone as indeed the company's quotation for the NBN project is reasonable, competitive and fair," said Zhang Shuming, ZTE's director for Global Sales Management, in a statement sent to media organizations. He said Madriaga "never directly took part in NBN project operations." "We think Mr Madriaga testified last Tuesday on the Senate on matters he did not participate in. Despite taking an oath in the Senate hearing, Mr Madriaga's testimony was obviously not based on factual knowledge," Zhang Shuming said. He said that as early as August 2006, ZTE Corporation submitted to the Commission for Information and Communications Technology its proposal, which was priced at $262 million. "Due to the substantial change in technology adoption and network coverage enlargement requested by the government, ZTE revised its proposal accordingly and submitted its final proposal with the price of $329 million to the [Department of Transportation and Communications] in February 2007," Zhang Shuming said. He claimed that all ZTE contract documents regarding the NBN project has already been disclosed by the Senate. Zhang Shuming said Madriaga's claim that the total cost of the NBN project should have only been $50 million is impossible "judged by the industry common sense." He said ZTE joins the call of the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippinesfor the Senate and the Office of the Ombudsman to "use their distinct and different powers of inquiry into alleged corruption cases, not for their own interests, but for the common good." ZTE also appealed to the Filipino people to "avoid coming up with unfounded conclusions with hypothesis and hearsay statements." - GMANews.TV