Filtered By: Topstories
News

Arroyo forced Neri to okay NBN-ZTE deal, court told


Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had forced her Planning secretary, Romulo Neri, to approve the alleged anomaly-ridden proposal of Chinese firm ZTE Corp. in the government's national broadband network project in 2007, a newspaper columnist said Thursday. Jarius Bondoc told the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division in a hearing that Neri himself told him this in a phone conversation on April 21, 2007, the day before the $329-million NBN deal was signed with ZTE Corp. The trial was for the graft case slapped against former Commission on Election (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos, who allegedly tried to bribe Neri to approve the deal. Under direct examination by Prosecutor Jacinto dela Cruz Jr., Bondoc said Neri called him in the morning of April 20, 2007 and gave him four names of people who were allegedly behind the overpricing of the NBN project. “Secretary Neri mentioned a certain Ricky Razon, Abalos and either GMA (Arroyo’s initials) or (then First Gentleman Jose Miguel) Mike Arroyo. He said, ‘You find out for yourself. I can’t tell you. I won’t tell you’," said Bondoc, who claimed to have known Neri since the Cory Aquino administration. That time, according to Bondoc, Neri was head of the Congressional Planning and Budget Office of the House of Representatives. Interviewed after the hearing, Bondoc said his inquiries led him to discover that both Arroyos were involved -- an accusation that the couple has long denied. Dela Cruz tried to get Bondoc to expound on his phone conversation with Neri, but the defense objected. It got sustained by the anti-graft court. The prosecutor instead marked as evidence Bondoc’s six-page sworn affidavit dated October 8, 2007 – the same affidavit Bondoc submitted to the Senate blue ribbon committee when he testified on the same issue. In the affidavit, Bondoc quoted Neri as saying that the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) was forced to approve the ZTE proposal because “PGMA was pushing it." He said by way of explaining the pressure on his office, Neri blurted, “Binraso ako ni Presidente (I was forced by the President)." Neri was also quoted as saying that Arroyo seemed unconcerned when he informed her of the P200-million bribe allegedly offered to him by Abalos to approve the ZTE proposal for the NBN project. “Huwag mong tanggapin (Don’t accept it), but I need the NEDA approval just the same," Arroyo allegedly told Neri then. The former NEDA chief also reportedly confided to Bondoc that he feared for his life and planned to resign as early as April 2007. But Neri opted to stay in the Arroyo government. Defense lawyers attacked Bondoc’s testimony by raising the blood ties between his wife, Marissa, and businessman Jose De Venecia III, who blew the whistle on the alleged irregularities surrounding the NBN-ZTE deal. Bondoc admitted that his wife and De Venecia are second cousins. - KBK/HS, GMANews.TV

LOADING CONTENT