ZTE witness says Teves in the know

BY DENNIS GADIL

WALK-IN ZTE witness Dante Madriaga yesterday said the Senate should again summon Finance Secretary Margarito Teves who he said "knows a lot" about the alleged initial payment by the Arroyo government to China’s ZTE Corp.

Madriaga said the information related to the initial payment is contrary to government claims that no single centavo from the taxpayers has been spent on the national broadband network project.

Madriaga said the payment could amount to at least $49 million or 15 percent of the $329 million total contract price, which according to businessman Jose de Venecia III and ZTE witness Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. included an overprice of some $130 million.

Citing ZTE sources, Madriaga said Teves could confirm if the $49 million was indeed paid to the ZTE Corp.

He claimed Teves has long wanted to testify to this but has been prevented from doing so.

Madriaga said the initial payment came barely eight days after President Arroyo witnessed the signing of the supply contract with ZTE officials in Boao, China. The signing took place April 2007.

He said the China government, which owns and controls ZTE, apparently wanted the initial payment before it could release the loan to the Philippine government.

Teves testified in September last year that former Elections chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. and some ZTE officials went to his house in Alabang, not to discuss the NBN project, but to discuss their plans for Mindanao.

The Senate Blue Ribbon committee has not issued a new summons to Teves.

Senate President Manny Villar said warrants of arrest will be issued against Abalos, cable TV executive Leo San Miguel, retired police general Quirino de la Torre, and businessman Ruben Reyes if they do not show up on Tuesday.

Madriaga has testified that Abalos, San Miguel, De la Torre and Reyes comprise the "greedy group" who are after commissions from the ZTE deal.

Villar said he is not giving up hope that Neri would appear on Tuesday.

"If he will show up and answer all questions truthfully, then that will prove that EO 464 has been discarded. The proof of the scrapping of that issuance is in his answering of our questions," he said.

‘TALK IS CHEAP’

Malacañang belittled the impending appearance of another witness on the ZTE deal.

Cabinet secretary Ricardo Saludo said the testimony of another "talking head" out to malign government would show that the Senate investigations into the broadband controversy are just "accusations with no proof."

Saludo said "talk is cheap" and that those who are in search of truth should look to the courts for due process, not the Senate.

Senators Panfilo Lacson and Aquilino Pimentel Jr. on Thursday said a new witness with personal knowledge of the alleged bribery that attended the ZTE deal will surface on Tuesday. – With Regina Bengco