Palace mum on ZTE deal revival for nat'l broadband network

Malacañang on Saturday kept its silence on the possibility of reviving a controversial deal with China’s ZTE Corp. for the country's a national broadband network (NBN) project. Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said it may be too early to discuss such a revival as being proposed by the Department of Science and Technology. “Nag-propose ang DOST (Department of Science and Technology) ng NBN project, something similar to what the previous project was. Napag-usapan siya, wala pang any resolution...," she said on government-run dzRB radio. She also declined to comment on whether engineer Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr., a whistleblower in the $329.48-million scandal in the 2007 project, would be a consultant. “I don’t know that. Alam ko ang DOST nagsimula ng pag-uusap nito... There is one unit of DOST. ... sila ang nagha-handle ng connectivity between government agencies," she said. Last Friday, the reported plan of the Aquino administration to set up an NBN gained the support of lawmakers, but the solons sought transparency in the bidding to avoid a repeat of the scandal. The NBN-ZTE deal, which was eventually scrapped amid claims the awarding of the mulit-million-dollar construction contract was anomalous, was one of the biggest scandals in the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration. — LBG, GMA News