Globe, Smart say they can do ZTE’s job

By Efren L. Danao, Manila Times Senior Reporter

Telecommunications companies told the Senate blue-ribbon committee on Tuesday that they can provide the last-mile broadband connectivity of the country and denied claims of the government that none of them was interested in the project.

Executives of Smart and Globe said at the resumption of hearing on the aborted $330-million project that the government need not enter into a contract with a Chinese firm for the broadband project because they already cover almost the entire country. They refuted the earlier statements of Assistant Secretary Lorenzo Formoso 3rd of the Department of Transportation and Communications that the government was forced to pursue the broadband project with foreign partners because no local telecommunications company was interested in it.

During the hearing, the blue ribbon headed by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, asked former socioeconomic planning Secretary Romulo Neri to show cause why he should not be cited in contempt for not attending the hearing. It also decided to refer to the Senate Committee on Public Order and Illegal Drugs the alleged assassination plot against Jose “Joey” de Venecia 3rd after lawyer Raul Lambino corroborated it. De Venecia, son of House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., blew the whistle on alleged brokers for the broadband deal—among them President Arroyo’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, and resigned Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr.

Rodolfo Salalima, vice-president for operations of Globe, and Mon Isberto of Smart said their respective companies were not approached in any way about the broadband project. If they were invited to bid, they would have done so and would have been capable of providing the service, they added.

Isberto said Smart already has cell sites in all but a dozen of the 1,600 towns in the country, that it is offering wireless broad­band services in 43 percent of the country, and that it has wired broadband services in 116 cities and major municipalities outside of Metro Manila.

Salalima said they have 7,000 cell sites covering about 80 percent of the country.

Globe and Smart said they were asked to participate only after President Arroyo had already canceled the contract with ZTE Corp., the Chinese firm that won the broadband project.

Cayetano said he found the testimony of the telecommunications companies “very revealing.”

“Imagine, the government will be spending $329 million without even asking local telcos if they can do it,” he said.

Cayetano said the government has been arguing that the project is needed but it has never maintained that it could save on the project cost because it is available locally.

He formed a technical group that included the telecommunications companies to go over the technical aspects of the project and determine if there was overpricing. The work of the group is facilitated by the rejection of ZTE’s request that its documents on pricing be considered proprietary.

Sen. Manuel Roxas, who moved for the opening of the documents, said committee members may now share the documents with any technical people they might want to consult so that they could make an informed decision.

Meanwhile, the Senate inched closer to an expected confrontation with Malacañang after the blue ribbon required Neri to show cause why he should not be cited in contempt for failing to appear at the hearing.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita wrote a letter to Cayetano asking the committee to dispense with the testimony of Neri because he had already testified and “exhaustively” discussed the broad­band project on September 26. Ermita invoked executive privilege in explaining why Neri could not testify on his conversations with Mrs. Arroyo regarding the project.

Cayetano also noted that Neri had already made disclosures on his conversations with the President in media interviews so Ermita’s explanation does not wash. He directed the committee secretary to draft a letter asking Neri to show cause why he should not be cited in contempt for not appearing at the hearing.

“If the committee won’t accept his explanation, then the next step is to have a vote on holding him in contempt,” the blue-ribbon chairman said.

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile asked for an immediate vote since that is where the committee appeared to be heading, but Sen. Panfilo Lacson and Cayetano said they have to accord Neri due process.

The blue ribbon also decided that the Senate should pursue the investigation of the alleged threat on the life of the de Venecias. Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Sen. Rodolfo Biazon said the alleged plot could be an attempt to silence a vital witness in a Senate investigation.

Lawyer Raul Lambino, a legal adviser of the Speaker, corroborated the earlier testimony of Joey de Venecia that retired Gen. Jaime de los Santos had warned of an assassination plot against him and his father, allegedly hatched by Transportation Secretary Leandro Men­doza, Land Transportation Office Director Reynaldo Berroya and prisons Director Ricardo Dapat.

Cayetano said Berroya and Dapat previously confirmed their attendance but called Tuesday morning that they were sick. The young de Venecia also begged off from the hearing, saying he had a prior commitment that could not be rescheduled and that the secretariat might have made a mistake in saying that businessman Enrique Razon confirmed his attendance.

“We have another hearing tomorrow involving another Razon, Gen. Avelino Razon, and our staff might have mistaken him for Enrique Razon,” Cayetano explained.