Senate panel to conduct one last hearing on NBN-ZTE mess

A Senate panel will conduct early next week another hearing on the botched $329.48-million National Broadband Network (NBN) project “to answer gaps" on the issue before releasing the long-awaited result of the probe. Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the blue ribbon committee, on Tuesday said he would submit the report of the committee two days after the hearing. He said his committee had started drafting the report as early as February this year. “What I am trying to do is, after having seen the entire report, three or four drafts, we reviewed it together with the committee secretariat, and from beginning to end there are still gaps that have to be answered. I have prepared all those questions to fill in those gaps," Gordon told reporters. He said the report would include proposed legislation and recommended actions on some of the persons involved in the said anomaly. Gordon said he intends to present in the hearing a summary of what the committee had found out. “We will show the participation of everyone, then we will say these are the gaps we are trying to fill, and these are the questions we are going to ask to fill in the gaps," he said. Among those who will be invited in next week’s hearing are Rodolfo Noel Lozada, the key witness in the alleged scam; and former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri, who gave the green light for the approval of the NBN contract with China’s Zhong Xing Telecommunications (ZTE) Corp. “If they don’t want to come then we will make our own conclusions," Gordon said. The senator said they would not invite Pangasinan Representative Jose de Venecia out of interdepartmental courtesy. “But if he wants to, he is welcome to come," he said. De Venecia’s son, Jose “Joey" De Venecia III, was the one who blew the whistle on the alleged overpriced contract. He accused Abalos of brokering the deal in exchange for a hefty sum. He also accused President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, of influencing the outcome of the deal. Both Abalos and Mr. Arroyo denied the allegations. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed the contract on April 20, 2007 in Hainan, China but canceled it on October 2, 2007 after allegations of bribery erupted. - GMANews.TV