Sunday, October 07, 2007 Botched NBN deal prompts complaint v. Arroyo
FOR a third straight year, an impeachment complaint was filed against President Arroyo.
This time, it is for betrayal of public trust for the President’s alleged failure to act on reports of bribery involved in the aborted national broadband network deal with a Chinese company.
The new impeachment complaint was filed almost at the close of office hours last Friday by lawyer Roberto Rafael Pulido. Laguna Rep. Edgar San Luis endorsed the complaint.
At the time of the filing, the House of Representatives was wrapping up its plenary session on the 2008 budget.
Pulido said the President knew about the “illegal and corrupt machinations undertaken by high government officials” to secure the $330-million broadband deal, but did nothing about it.
He named Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos and Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. He also cited the testimony of the speaker’s son, Jose “Joey” de Venecia III, before the Senate last month that the two officials and the President discussed the proposals of ZTE Corp. and Joey’s Amsterdam Holdings Inc. during a golf game in China.
ZTE Corp. got the contract, which President Arroyo eventually cancelled after a Senate inquiry uncovered alleged bribery attempts on government officials.
Joey has also accused First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo of telling him to “back off” from the project. The President’s husband has denied meeting the speaker’s son.
Pulido, a defeated congressional candidate in the May 14 elections, has also filed an ethics complaint against de Venecia for the speaker’s alleged failure to stop his son from intervening in government transactions.
In his complaint, Pulido cited the testimony of former economic planning secretary Romulo Neri last Sept. 26 that Abalos offered him a P200-million bribe for the approval of the broadband deal and that Neri reported the matter to the President.
Still, Arroyo did nothing, Pulido said.
Abalos resigned from the Comelec over the allegations. He said it was not an admission of guilt, vowed to clear his name and file charges against those who accused him of wrongdoing.
But opposition legislators said the new impeachment complaint could just be a ploy of the Arroyo administration.
Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez, senior minority leader, said in a statement that the complaint could be “a pre-emptive impeachment move to insulate (Arroyo) from a real hostile impeachment.”
Rep. Joel Villanueva of the party-list group Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption also said in an inquirer.net report that “maybe the real intention was to prevent the President from being impeached.”
An impeachment complaint needs at least a two-thirds vote from the House of Representatives so that it could be sent to the Senate for trial. Opposition legislators only number 24 in the House.
Under the Constitution, once a complaint is endorsed, the impeachment process is deemed initiated and all other impeachment cases are barred. The President is then immune from impeachment for one year.
Since 2005, several complaints have been filed at the House against Arroyo for alleged electoral fraud in the May 2005 polls, corruption and human rights violations.
Lawyer Oliver Lozano filed the impeachment complaints two years ago and again in 2006.
But the opposition had said the charges were deliberately flawed to nullify subsequent “legitimate complaints.” Arroyo’s allies in the House rejected Lozano’s complaints. (CPG)
