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Saturday, October 06, 2007
Aides: Mike Arroyo can skip broadband deal probe
MANILA -- People close to First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo felt that he could not and should not attend the Senate hearing on the cancelled National Broadband Network (NBN) deal with ZTE Corporation because of his health condition.
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Juris Soliman, chief of staff of Mr. Arroyo, and Ruy Rondain, lawyer of the First Gentleman, said they have not yet seen any invitation from the Senate but if it arrives, it would be studied carefully.
Soliman said the First Gentleman, however, is not at all bothered with the developments in the NBN nor is he afraid because he was not involved in the deal.
She said they would be consulting Mr. Arroyo’s lawyers and even his doctors before making any decision, although personally she felt that the First Gentleman does not need to attend because he was not directly implicated as intervening in the NBN case.
She added that they understand the senators in their plans to invite and question the First Gentleman, but they should also consider his health conditions.
“Let us be sensitive and considerate to the First Gentleman’s health condition,” said Soliman.
Jose “Joey” de Venecia III, son of House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. and a major stockholder of Amsterdam Holdings, Incorporated which participated and lost to ZTE during the bidding of the NBN deal, said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s husband pointed a finger at him and told him to back off from the project, which Mr. Arroyo had denied.
Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, had sent invitation to Mr. Arroyo, former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr., columnist Jarius Bondoc and some Cabinet officials for the October 25 hearing.
Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol said the President’s husband had already denied that he asked the young de Venecia to back off and he would just repeat it if ever he attends the hearing.
Apostol added that there is no more need for Mr. Arroyo to attend the Senate hearing especially since he has yet to fully recover from his open-heart operation last April.
He said with the President’s decision to scrap the ZTE deal, the hearings on the issue should eventually end.
The President announced the cancellation of the contract during her bilateral meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Shanghai early this week. (JMR/Sunnex)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Zamboanga. (October 6, 2007 issue)
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