MANILA – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband are liable for their alleged involvement in the scandal-marred $330 million national broadband project which the government has awarded to a Chinese firm, a powerful Senate committee disclosed.
The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, chaired by Senator Richard Gordon, released its 127-page report a year after it finished its investigation of the project, which was awarded to the China-based ZTE Corporation, amid allegations it was overpriced by as much as $130 million.
The overprice allegedly lined the pockets of government officials as well as powerful and influential individuals, including lawyer Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, the husband of the President.
In the report, Gordon proposed that President Arroyo be investigated by the office of the Ombudsman for allegedly committing an impeacheable offense as contained in the 1986 Constitution.
Earlier, Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez ruled that as long as she is President, Mrs. Arroyo could not be charged because she is “immune” from any criminal or civil suit
However, Gordon disputed the Gutierrez ruling as he pointed out it is Congress, not the office of the Ombudsman, which can determine whether President Arroyo has committed an impeachable offense as defined by the Constitution.
The senator cited a provision the Constitution which states that the President “must preserve and defend the Constitution, execute its laws, do justice to every man.”
Based on the report, Gordon said the embattled woman leader has been found found wanting in her performance as President as he stressed: “Unfortunately, you can see the litany of errors of the President. Apparently, she wasn’t able to crack the whip on her people.”
At the same time, the report recommended the filing of graft charges before the office of the Ombudsman against the President’s husband as well as other officials and personalities for their alleged involvement in the scandal.
But a lawyer quoted the President’s husband as saying he was not “shocked and bothered” by the report because he was already cleared by Ombudsman Gutierrez on the same case.
Gutierrez was a classmate in law school of the President’s husband. This is the main reason why critics and other sectors have insisted that Gutierrez tended to sit on the mainly graft charges filed before her office against the President, members of her family, government officials and political allies.
Malacanang, through Press Secretary Cerge Remonde, also denied that President Arroyo did not do anything when she learned of the alleged scandal. He said the President immediately ordered Secretary Ronaldo Puno of the Department of Interior and Local Government to investigate the case.
In the same report, Gordon also recommended the filing of graft charges against Rodolfo Lozada Junior and businessman Jose de Venecia 3rd, a son and namesake of former speaker Jose de Venecia of the House of Representatives. But he added they could be utilized as state witnesses. In recognition of their role in exposing the scandal.
Also recommended for inclusion in the charges were: Benjamin Abalos, the resigned chairman of the Commission on Elections; Secretary Leandro Mendoza of the Department of Transportation and Communications; former socio-economic planning secretary Romulo Neri, now the president of the state pension fund for the private sector Social Security System; Secretary Lito Atienza of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources ; and former deputy executive secretary Manuel Gaite.
In particular, Abalos has been described as the “middleman” in the scandal-wracked project, allegedly in cahoots with the President’s husband who, in turn, has been called a “wheeler dealer by the opposition since his wife took over Malacanang in 2001.
On the other hand, it was Neri who testified before the Senate that he informed President Arroyo of the alleged attempt of Abalos to bribe him the equivalent of $4 million to hasten the approval of the broadband contract.
Gordon acknowledged that while the President had cancelled the contract at the height of the controversy, this did not absolve her from any criminal liability as a result of the scandal which he described thus: “…a never ending battle among the political elite for economic power, domination and control.”
“In the middle of it all is a President who was unable to control and discipline her own men as they fought over kickbacks,” Gordon emphasized. “She kept her silence in the midst of the coruption – acquiescing and condoning the deed.”
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