'Nagalak si Ma'am'

Ping: "I-know-nothing' witness took a phone call

BY DENNIS GADIL

CONNECT the dots, if you please, or if you will.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson yesterday said his "surprise" witness, Leo San Miguel, was overheard by members of the Office of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms (OSAA) during a break in Tuesday's Senate hearing on the ZTE deal talking to a person he addressed as "Ma'am."

On the other side of town, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said that President Arroyo was "elated" by San Miguel's testimony that he knew nothing of supposed kickbacks in connection in the deal.

"Narinig siya ng OSAA, may kausap siyang 'ma'am.' 'Yes ma'am, opo ma'am, ide-deny ko po ma'm,'" Lacson said.

Lacson said he doesn't believe that San Miguel was just talking to his wife or staff.

"Ewan ko, baka asawa niya ang kausap niya pero 'ma'am' ang tawag niya. At madiin ang 'yes ma'm, opo ma'm, ide-deny ko po ma'm,'" Lacson said.

He said the phone call was coursed through lawyer Marcelino Agana IV of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO).

"Nakausap niya si Attorney Agana na siyang nasa PLLO sa Senado. Maya-maya meron siyang kausap sa telepono na 'Ma'am'," he said.

"Lalong tumibay nang makausap si 'Ma'am. Isa lang naman ang 'Ma'am' na ina-address ng ganun," he said.

He said after the call, San Miguel appeared to have further firmed up, denying anything about the supposed kickbacks and commissions that the "Greedy Group" of former elections chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. were supposed to get.

Agana admitted that he talked to San Miguel Monday night before the ZTE consultant met with Lacson and before the Senate inquiry Tuesday morning.

But Agana said San Miguel only told him that he was going to testify on whatever he was going to be asked.

Agana, who said he was San Miguel's lawyer when the businessman was president of the Philippine Cable Television Association, denied that he tried to influence San Miguel's testimony or that President Arroyo or Malacañang had instructed him to do so.

In his testimony Tuesday, San Miguel said he had no "direct knowledge" of the alleged $41 million in advances that he and other alleged members of the "Greedy Group Plus Plus" were supposed to have received from China's ZTE Corp., which had bagged the $329 million contract.

Lacson was caught by surprise by San Miguel's testimony, saying it was contrary to what was related to him in their previous meetings.

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz labeled San Miguel as incredible for "unfathomably" lying before the Senate inquiry.

"I really don't know what happened to him. He is obviously lying because for him to be asked by a senator to undergo a lie detector test is something. The man sounded incredible to many senators," said Cruz, a former president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

San Miguel's insistence that he does not know anything about the supposed bribe advances was contrary to the statements of Rodolfo "Jun" Lozada, Jose "Joey" de Venecia III and Dante Madriaga, who all said San Miguel was part of the negotiations of the deal.

Cruz said it is evident that "someone powerful" made San Miguel testify the way he did.

"It can only mean two things: either he was threatened or he was convinced not to tell the truth of what he obviously knew so much of," Cruz said.

GOV'T OFFICIALS TOO

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the Palace is open to allowing government officials linked to the ZTE deal to undergo a lie detector test.

Ermita said they also welcome the proposal of Sen. Mar Roxas Tuesday night for Lozada, De Venecia, Madriaga and San Miguel to undergo a lie detector test. All except De Venecia have agreed to the proposal.

Ermita denied that Malacañang or the President herself may have had contact with San Miguel or even know him.

He also denied that there are efforts to influence him or any of the other witnesses. - Dennis Gadil, Gerard Naval and Jocelyn Montemayor