Ducky Paredes

“The Speaker’s Office had instructed me to forward the attached material to your office, ASAP.”

by Ducky Paredes

To be fair to everybody, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee should pursue the line of Senator Juan Ponce Enrile that Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. and his son, Jose de Venecia III or Joey, were behind the controversy surrounding the national broadband project which had been awarded to China’s ZTE corporation on a government-to-government contract.
During the September 25 hearing by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on the ZTE national broadband network (NBN) project, Senator Enrile read into the records a letter signed by an official of the Amsterdam Holdings Inc. (AHI) showing the hand of Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. in the ZTE controversy.
The letter, dated Dec. 4, 2006, was signed by Ernesto C. Garcia, AHI managing director, and addressed to Secretary Leandro Mendoza of the Department of Transportation and Communications. In effect, Garcia wrote that the “Speaker’s Office” had “instructed” him to forward to Mendoza a draft letter for Mendoza to sign endorsing the AHI’s bid for the undertaking of the NBN project.
“The Speaker’s Office had instructed me to forward the attached material to your office, ASAP,” wrote Garcia in his letter to Mendoza. The “attached material” was a draft letter supposedly to be signed by Mendoza and addressed to Romulo Neri, then director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), endorsing AHI’s bid for the NBN contract.
Upon questioning by Senator Enrile, Neri admitted that Speaker De Venecia and his son, Joey, the largest stockholder of AHI, were behind the AHI bid. Enrile asked Neri why the De Venecias would directly refer the AHI bid to NEDA, when the NBN was not a BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) project, but a Build-Operate-Owned (BOO) project. “They do not probably know the procedures,” Neri replied.
Senator Enrile replied: “In other words, the NBN project of Amsterdam Holdings was none other than the project of Speaker de Venecia like the Northrail Project.” Enrile mentioned Neri’s closeness to the De Venecias, having served in the House economic staff under Speaker de Venecia, before he joined the NEDA. Enrile said Neri also had a hand in the approval of the North Rail project.
Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos also said during the hearing that if there was anybody brokering the ZTE deal with the government it must be Neri because of his closeness to the De Venecias. Abalos pointed out that he could not have offered a bribe to Neri or to Joey de Venecia because he had nothing to do with the ZTE bid, although he had played golf with the ZTE officials on several occasions.
Neri himself cast doubt on his own claim that Abalos had offered $200 million to approve the ZTE contract. During the Senate hearing, Neri said he was not in a position to approve the ZTE NBN contract, and that he approved was the “concept” of a broadband network for the Philippines.
Abalos then remarked that if Neri was in no position to approve the contract why should anybody attempt to bribe him for his approval of the project?
So why does not the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee instead investigate the possible violation by the De Venecias of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act prohibiting the Speaker and other high officials of government, including their children and other relatives within the fourth degree of consanguinity, against interfering or participating in any contract with the government.
The charge of violation of the Code of Ethics of a public official filed against Speaker de Venecia before the House Committee on Ethics should likewise be pursued, before the House takes up the impeachment complaint against Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos. Our congressmen ought to first clean up their house before attempting to clean up other government institutions such as the Comelec.
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If the Pangasinan Mafia, composed primarily of the political forces of Speaker Joe De Venecia and of former President Fidel Ramos, were to withdraw their support for Gloria Arroyo, surely, Gloria would fall. Not even her military will be able to save Gloria especially because Ramos would be able to counteract any political action within the military that would otherwise continue support for Gloria.
If that happens, Gloria’s one hope would be if she could get the Erap forces to support her. As for Erap, should FVR prevail again, he is looking at a long jail term in Muntinglupa.
FVR has not forgiven Erap for investigating FVR’s excesses on the Centennial Village in Clark AFB.
Perhaps, Erap’s camp has not figured out the danger that the former President faces. The smarter thing to do would have been to get a presidential pardon as early as he could. A military junta or a new government where FVR would be a major player can only mean a long jail term for Joseph Estrada.
Our politics are ruled by personal enmities and private agenda.
De Venecia has a proper biff against Gloria Arroyo. He had the scare of his life in the last election when he was forced into an expensive campaign in his election for his home district. Benjamin Lim of the Kampi Party (Gloria Arroyo’s personal political party) ran against De Venecia and could have won had JDV let down his guard.
Then, JDV having won his seat, Kampi member Pablo Garcia of Cebu challenged JDV for the speakership. This was, again, from all indications, another expensive undertaking for JDV.
Clearly, there is no love lost between the President and the Speaker. It all depends now on FVR.
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hvp (09.30.07)