Filtered By: Topstories
News

Palace to presume regularity in ZTE deal until violations are proven


MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang will apply the principle of "presumption of regularity" until government officials involved in the controversial $329.48-million national broadband network deal with China's ZTE Corp. are proven to have erred. In a radio interview, Deputy Presidential Spokeswoman Lorelei Fajardo said that while the preventive suspension of transportation officials involved in the controversial is an option that "can be considered," they will be presumed to be innocent until insinuations of wrongdoings are proven in the proper forum. Fajardo made these statements when asked to comment on former senior government officials' recommendation to "preventively suspend" Transportation Sec. Leandro Mendoza and his Asst. Sec. Lorenzo Formoso III who handled the NBN-ZTE deal. "That can be considered, yung recommendation para sa suspension. But ipinaliwanag ng ating government officials ang kanilang side na walang anomalya (That can be considered, but the officials already aired their side that there was nothing anomalous about the deal)," Fajardo said in an interview on dzBB radio. The Department of Transportation and Communications is the agency that reviewed and would have implemented the $329.48-million ZTE broadband network deal, if the deal were not scrapped by Malacañang. Former senior government officials on Tuesday called for the preventive suspension of Mendoza and Formoso so they cannot exert influence on any ongoing investigation into allegations of corruption in the deal. Former officials also sought the suspension of officials involved in the alleged abduction attempt on witness Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. Also, they called for allowing former socio-economic secretary Romulo Neri to testify "without limits," and to allow the documents in the ZTE deal to be made available to investigators. In the interview, Fajardo said Malacañang will leave it to the Supreme Court to decide on whether Neri should be made to testify "without limits." She noted the case is still pending before the high court as the Senate and Neri's lawyers merely reached a compromise allowing Neri to testify in the next Senate hearing. Fajardo also said the government cannot make public the technical minutes of the NEDA Board meeting where the project was discussed because it involves executive privilege. "Dito we come up with decisions, these pertain sa tinatawag na executive privilege (In the NEDA Board meetings, we come up with decisions and these pertain to what we call executive privilege)," Fajardo said. "This can be a precedent for succeeding investigations in the Senate," she added. - GMANews.TV
LOADING CONTENT