Last Senate hearing on ZTE-NBN deal set on Tuesday

The last Senate hearing on the botched $329.48-million national broadband network (NBN) project with China ’s ZTE Corp would be a "clean-up time," Senator Richard Gordon said on Monday. The hearing, to be conducted by the blue ribbon committee that Gordon chairs, is set on Tuesday morning. “Dito sa final hearing, clean-up time natin ito. Ilalatag natin lahat. Ipapakita natin yung chronology, kung sino yung nagsama-sama doon sa bawat chapter. Makikita ng tao kung sino yung walang ibang interes kundi kumita," Gordon said. (This hearing would be clean-up time for us. Everything will be revealed, including the personalities involved who had personal interests in the deal.) Among those invited in the hearing were businessmen Rodolfo Noel ‘Jun’ Lozada Jr and Jose ‘Joey’ de Venecia III, the two vital witnesses in the alleged anomalous deal. Implicated in the case were former Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos, incumbent Social Security Service (SSS) head Romulo Neri, and First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo. The Office of the Ombudsman had already recommended the filing of graft charges against Abalos and Neri. It however dropped the case against Mr. Arroyo due to lack of evidence. Gordon said the Ombudsman report would not make the Senate hearing moot. “We’re not bound by their decision because we are a legislative agency. We do this in aid of legislation, but of course we will also recommend based on our findings," Gordon said. The blue ribbon report would be released two days after Tuesday's hearing, according to Gordon. In Malacañang, Deputy presidential spokesman Anthony Golez on Monday reiterated Mr. Arroyo - or even President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo - need not explain their roles on the scrapped project. “Just because the President talked to someone doesn’t mean there is malice there…If we put malice in it then you will think that’s what happens," Golez said in a press briefing in Malacañang. He was referring to President Arroyo's reported meeting with ZTE officials prior to the signing of the project on April 20, 2007 in Hainan, China. The deal was however canceled on October 2, 2007 after allegations of bribery erupted. (See complete time line here.) Ruy Rondain, Mr. Arroyo's counsel, last Sunday said his client has no plans of attending the hearing as he does not have anything new to say. Rondain said he would just give the Senate blue ribbon committee copies of the three affidavits that Mr. Arroyo submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman. - GMANews.TV