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Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Palace allows Neri to attend broadband deal probe
MANILA –- Former socio-economic planning secretary Romulo Neri will attend Wednesday’s Senate investigation on the controversial multimillion dollar National Broadband Network (NBN) deal with Chinese Firm ZTE Corporation.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo made her last minute instructions early Monday evening and advised Neri to stay behind and appear before the Senate probe.
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Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita at 6:45 p.m. Monday relayed the President’s “instructions for him (Neri) to stay behind and attend the Senate hearing.”
Bunye said Neri was supposed to be with the President’s delegation in New York to assist her in her meeting with the Millennium Challenge Corporation that oversees the Millennium Challenge account and in the Clinton Global Initiative.
Neri, now Commission on Higher Education (Ched) chairman, failed to appear in Thursday’s hearing due to intestinal flu but assured the senators that he will appear in the next scheduled hearing.
Early Monday, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has advised Neri to join the President’s trip to New York for the United Nations (UN) General Assembly this week.
“I’ve been advised by the DFA that I may be needed in New York with the President to back her up on the discussion of Millennium Challenge account, which is of the areas we dealt with when I was director of Neda (National Economic and Development Authority),” said Neri.
He, however, said he would immediately follow if the President orders him to join the trip, stressing he is not in the position to decline even if he has promised to attend the Senate inquiry.
“The President is my superior. I will do whatever she told me. I guess, if she instructed me to go, and it’s a legal order, I may have to follow,” he said.
However, the President changed her mind Monday evening and instead advised Neri to attend the Senate hearing Wednesday.
Neri was supposed to stay behind in New York to await and assist Vice President Noli de Castro who would be attending a top-level UN Interfaith Dialogue meeting on October 1. The office of de Castro, however, was still finalizing his schedule because of unofficial word that the meeting could be on October 4.
Bunye said the interfaith dialogue is expected to be held one to two days, and Neri was supposed to return to the country at the same time de Castro would return to Manila.
He said de Castro would be leaving after Arroyo arrives in the country from her September 26 to 28 visit to New York to attend the UN General Assembly. Arroyo and her delegation would leave at 11 p.m. Tuesday.
Bunye laughed off reports that Neri had been advised to stay longer in the US to evade the Senate investigation.
He said contingency plans would just be drawn up to determine who would be assisting Arroyo and de Castro during the events.
Neri was the director general of Neda when the deal was signed in Boao, China on April 21 by Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza and executives of ZTE Corporation. (JMR/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Baguio. (September 25, 2007 issue)
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