Mike Arroyo: I was already cleared in NBN-ZTE mess

Former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo on Thursday said the Office of the Ombudsman should junk the plunder complaint case filed against him in relation to the controversial national broadband network (NBN) deal which the government signed with China’s ZTE Corp. in 2007. In a statement, Mr. Arroyo said the same office already cleared him and his wife, former President and incumbent Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, of involvement in the allegedly anomalous deal two years ago. "The issues on the NBN-ZTE deal had already been heard and passed upon by the Office of the Ombudsman in 2009. I and the former President have already been cleared of the same charges being filed now," Mr. Arroyo said. In 2009, the Office of the Ombudsman, then led by Mr. Arroyo’s law school batchmate Merceditas Gutierrez, issued a resolution that it did not find any probable cause to charge Mr. Arroyo for the botched deal. Mrs. Arroyo, then the country’s President, was meanwhile not indicted because of her immunity from suit at the time. On Thursday, the Arroyos, along with former Elections chief Benjamin Abalos Sr. and Transportation and Communications chief Leandro Mendoza, were charged with a new plunder case before the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly pocketing P1.4 billion in bribes from the NBN-ZTE deal. The controversy over the deal involved allegations of corruption in the awarding of a US$329 million construction contract to Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE for the proposed government-managed NBN. Canceled Also in his statement, Mr. Arroyo stressed that he and his wife never benefited from the deal, since its contract was terminated in 2007. "The public should be reminded that it was cancelled by the former President before it could be implemented. Since it was canceled, there was no injury to the government," he said. "There was also no personal gain whatsoever. So where is plunder there?" he added. The former First Gentleman also said that the groups that lodged the complaint only did so "in the name of media mileage. "All these allegations against us are good only for the headlines but have absolutely no substance," he said. Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño earlier said that although the deal was canceled, the Arroyo couple and two other officials still received the bribes, based on testimonies of witnesses in past congressional inquiries on the controversy. "Even if the contract was eventually cancelled due to its anomalies, the fact is that money already changed hands. The money was amassed in exchange for the approval and signing of the contract," Casiño noted. — RSJ, GMA News