“The fact of the matter is that the NBN contract was a government-to-government agreement between two countries — the Philippines and China.”
by Ducky Paredes
Is the Senate taking too large a bite that it cannot possibly swallow when it threatens to force officials of the Chinese embassy and ZTE Corporation of China to testify on its hearings on the canceled national broadband network (NBN) project?
Blue Ribbon Committee Chair Senator Alan Peter Cayetano said during the NBN hearing last week that China per se was not involved in the issue and that the Senate was only after one of the many companies that are based in China. This company is ZTE.
Alan Peter does not know that he is saying. The fact of the matter is that the NBN contract was a government-to-government agreement between two countries — the Philippines and China. In fact, unknown to most, the cancellation of the project was not a unilateral act by Gloria Arroyo or the Philippine side but a mutual decision of both governments to scrap the project not because they feared that the alleged anomalies would be found out; it was scrapped simply because of the “political noise” that the project was being subjected to.
Cayetano, also, fails to appreciate the fact that ZTE Corporation is owned, in large part, by the Chinese government. In fact, Senator Pong Biazon has also warned the Senate about being too gung-ho about taking on the Chinese government and suggested that the Senate first consult with the Department of Foreign Affairs before doing anything rash.
Senator Aquilino Pimentel even threatened to have China’s commercial attaché to the Philippines declared as persona non grata. Pimentel also asked the Senate to move for the delisting of ZTE in the Hong Kong stock exchange under an unclear bilateral agreement he tried to cite as basis for the action.
Clearly, the Senators are over-reacting and would push the entire country into an unwinnable diplomatic quarrel with China. Is the Philippine Senate preparing to take on the Chinese government? It sure seems that way.
And over what? Over the words of losing NBN bidder Joey de V and the histrionics of J. Lo, the alleged poor man who owns golf playing rights worth several million pesos?
Considering where the Senate seems to be going, shouldn’t we stop and wonder what solid evidence has actually been offered by Lozada and De Venecia to the Senate to back up their allegation that the contract was overpriced? I have not seen any but they do tell compelling stories.
What the Senate has is a humongous case of he says, he-she says. There is really nothing more than just that. Are we going to put at risk billions of dollars trade with China over what could turn out to be nothing?
Lest we forget, China is the No. 1 trading partner of the Philippines. What if China pulls out all of its investments in the Philippines and bars the entry of Philippine exports out of exasperation over its being dragged into what the Chinese have already labeled as simply a “political circus”?
* * *
I have been getting a lot of hate mail recently because I have kept an open mind on this NBN-ZTE story. What many of the hate-mailers cannot seem to accept is the suggestion of ZTE that a panel of unbiased scientists and experts be convened to look over the bid documents that won the bid for ZTE to see if, in fact, there was any overpricing.
ZTE offered the Philippines a National Broadband Network that would deliver nationwide network coverage from the central government to local government agents, ranging from Tier One cities to Tier Six barangays, 17 districts, 81 provinces, 2,295 central government agencies and 23,549 local government agencies and provide services to all public organizations such as schools, hospitals, police stations and others. During the bidding and the negotiations, there were changes made. In the beginning the coverage was only for 35% of the country. In the end, the Philippines asked for a 100% coverage and the price of the project increased from P262 million to P329 million.
In their Senate testimonies, Joey de V and J. Lo differ on where the bribe money was. According to Joey, the project cost increased from P262 million to P392 to create a bribe of P130 million. J. Lo, on the other hand, testified (according to the transcripts of his Senate testimony) that the P130 million was already included in the original P262 million.
Who’s right and who’s wrong? How can we tell which of them is telling the truth?
DOTC Assistant Secretary Lorenzo Formoso suggested that what we should do is for everyone to just look at the contract itself to see whether there was, in fact, any overpricing? The DOTC and ZTE say that there was none! No overprice means no story! So, what are Joey and J. Lo talking about?
Let’s get back to the bare facts: ZTE had a contract with the government, which the government accepted and which would be built with funds borrowed from China.
Joey was a losing bidder. Joey had an axe to grind and, thus, claims that there was an overprice. Wouldn’t the more prudent thing to do be to find out first of all whether or not there was any overprice?
Don’t get me wrong. From the beginning, I was against this NBN project because I really do not think that this project will do much for this country; besides, there are a lot more basic things we need than another National Broadband Network. Would the government cut its communications bills with this NBN? Of course not. Every time government tries to cut down on the number of its employees, their numbers increase. Every time government tires to cut down on expenses, these expenses increase. Thus, I am against the NBN because I firmly believe that it will not do for us the things that government thinks this project will do.
A recent study by the PCIJ (Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism) found that seven out of ten projects undertaken by government did not deliver on its promises. Why should the NBN be any different?
Let’s not do the NBN, as the government has already done by canceling the contract; but, let’s also not beat this dead horse too long and too badly on just the say-so of Joey de V and J. Lo.
# # # #
hvp 02.18.08)
One Comment
I couldn’t agree more with you. I can’t believe that after two weeks of testimonies and “kwento-kwento”, J-Lo hasn’t come up with the goods! He hasn’t submitted any documents or anything to back up his accusations.
I like J-Lo because he seems to have had it with the corrupt practices in the government. He benefited from it of course, but the fact that he has burned his bridges with the administration is something commendable. I just hope that someone out there can substantiate his claims with hard evidence.
Salamat po,
Lester
www.lestercavestany.com
Post a Comment