Arroyo Cabinet members hold emergency meet on ZTE deal

Hours before they were to face a Senate investigation on the $329.5-million broadband network deal with China's ZTE Corp., Cabinet members of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo held an emergency meeting to discuss their "strategy." Radio dzBB reported before dawn Thursday that Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza, who attended the meeting, said they would insist the deal was "a conditional contract." The report said the meeting was held Wednesday night in Malacañang. While Mendoza refused to elaborate on the "conditions," he said he is confident that they could establish the contract was clean and above-board. Mendoza, Trade Secretary Peter Favila and Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chairman Romulo Neri were among the Cabinet members President Arroyo allowed to attend the hearing. The Senate hearing is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Meanwhile, Catholic bishops reminded the resource persons attending the hearings that there is no alternative for telling the truth. Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz and Caloocan City bishop Deogracias Iñiguez Jr. made the call in separate interviews on Church-run Radio Veritas. Excerpts of the interview were posted Wednesday night on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) website (www.cbcpnews.com). Iñiguez said it would even be better if prior consultations were made so nobody would express doubts over agreements between foreign and Filipino companies, as in the ZTE deal. For his part, Cruz said it is "hard not to believe" Jose “Joey" de Venecia III, who made the claims of irregularities despite opening himself to a series of lawsuits. "It would be very easy to know whether witnesses called to hearings either at the Senate or House of Representatives are telling the truth or lies," Cruz said. But Cruz, a critic of the Arroyo administration, also noted De Venecia’s efforts to shield President Arroyo from the scandal. He exhorted De Venecia and other witnesses to tell the truth and promote transparency, saying there is no alternative to transparency in such investigations. "What I saw in the younger De Venecia’s testimony was his attempts to shield President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo from the controversial NBN-ZTE deal," he said. Cruz added De Venecia risked exposing himself to possible lawsuits as the law prohibits close relatives of ranking government officials from doing business with the government. - GMANews.TV