“WHAT’S happening to our country? Everything’s for sale.”
So saying, former Speaker Jose de Venecia disclosed today his personal knowledge of what he called the “rampant, large-scale bribery and corruption” in government which, he said, starts with President Gloria Arroyo.
Testifying before the House committee on justice, he called on his colleagues in the House of Representatives to set aside partisan politics, follow their conscience and approve the fourth impeachment complaint against the president. The complaint, he said, has basis and is “invested with a higher sense of purpose to the public and to the nation. (Download audio files of Nov. 24, 2008 House justice committee hearing)
The House committee last week declared the complaint sufficient in form. It resumed hearings this morning to determine if the complaint is sufficient in substance.
De Venecia confirmed the Nov. 2, 2006 lunch meeting of President Arroyo, First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo and then Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos with ZTE Corp. officials at the ZTE headquarters in Shenzhen, China. He said he and his wife were invited to the meeting.
He said he was surprised at the presence of Arroyo, her husband and Abalos in a meeting with “a company that is bidding for a massive project.”
De Venecia said Abalos did most of the talking during the meeting, after which the First Gentleman proposed that the National Broadband Network Project be undertaken as a government-to-government contract to be backed by sovereign guarantee.
He said this was a complete turnaround from what President Arroyo had told him just before the meeting that she wanted the project pursued as a build-operate-transfer, government risk-free, private-sector initiative, as proposed by the former Speaker’s son, Jose “Joey” de Venecia III.
De Venecia said his son was indeed offered a $10 million bribe to drop his bid while then Economic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri received a P200 million to support the awarding of the $329 million NBN contract to ZTE Corp.
Reacting to the First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo’s statement that he was lying about what transpired in November 2006, De Venecia whipped out his forthcoming biography, showed the picture of the meeting at ZTE and said, “Pictures do not lie.”
The book, Global Filipino: The Authorized Biography of Jose de Venecia, Jr., will be launched this week in the U.S.
The former Speaker also disclosed that President Arroyo had requested him during an October 2007 meeting at Malacanang to transmit to the House committee on justice what he said was a “bogus” three-page impeachment complaint filed last year by lawyer Roel Pulido.
He said he told the president point-blank three or four times he would not endorse the complaint and was about to walk out of the meeting when somebody suggested that he went on leave so that his deputy, Rep. Raul del Mar, could transmit the complaint.
He said his meeting followed an Oct. 11 meeting between Arroyo and House members at Malacanang during which bags each containing P500,000 were distributed to the representatives to persuade them to transmit the impeachment complaint.
The former Speaker also said the Palace delivered to his office a bag also containing P500,000, which he said remains unopened and which he intends to turn over to Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, chairman of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.
He said Arroyo could have spent P100 million as “gifts” or “payola” to the congressmen, governors and other local officials “to buy legal protection for one year” so she would not be impeached.
De Venecia blamed his ouster as Speaker and president of the Lakas-CMD, a party he co-founded, on his refusal to endorse the third impeachment complaint filed against Arroyo last year and his son’s decision to testify before the Senate blue ribbon committee on the controversial NBN-ZTE contract.
In supporting the most recent impeachment complaint against the president, De Venecia said that not to endorse it would “constitute a crime against Filipino people.”
He pointed to the need to restore to government the virtues that Arroyo had set aside: “openness, accountability, integrity and good government.”
The fourth impeachment complaint accuses Arroyo of betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of the Constitution, bribery, and graft and corruption. It links her to the overpriced NBN-ZTE and North Rail contracts, extrajudicial killings of activists and journalists, bribery of congressmen and local officials to transmit Pulido’s impeachment complaint to the House committee on justice, diversion of the P729 million fertilizer fund to fund her 2004 campaign kitty, “Hello, Garci” scandal in the 2004 elections, and the illegal and improper use of the P5 billion loan obtained by the Quedan Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. to fund her 2004 election campaign.
Following De Venecia’s statement, party-list Gabriela Rep. Lisa Maza testified on the Palace bribery while Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo gave additional details on the extrajudicial killings.
In the afternoon, Gabriela Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan questioned the memorandum of understanding between the government and ZTE Corp. to explore the Mt. Diwalwal mining area in Compostela Valley, saying ZTE Corp. was not into mining.
Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano said Arroyo was the “brains” in the fertilizer fund scam to ensure her election in 2004 and had acquiesced to the misuse of the P5 billion loan obtained by Quedancor, also to fund her 2004 election campaign.
Bayan Muna’s Teodoro “Teddy” Casino said the North Rail project with China’s state-owned China National Machinery and Equipment Corp. (CNMEC) violated the Government Procurement Reform Act and became the template for subsequent questionable contracts the government entered into like the NBN-ZTE deal.
Bukidnon Rep. Teofisto Guingona Jr. recalled political operator Michaelangelo Zuce’s testimony to the Senate on President Arroyo’s meeting with Comelec local officials weeks before the 2004 elections, during which money reportedly changed hands.
He also quoted excerpts from the “Hello, Garci” recordings, which included 15 conversations between the president and then Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, as proof of Arroyo’s knowledge and involvement in rigging the 2004 polls, especially in Mindanao.
The six legislators, along with San Juan Rep. Ronaldo Zamora, have endorsed the latest impeachment complaint.–Yvonne T. Chua
First posted at 10:55 a.m.
Updated at 1:50 p.m.