By Gerry Baldo and Jason Faustino
The Daily Tribune
When it rains, it pours, particularly on former president Gloria Arroyo who aside from receiving another graft charge yesterday for an exotic offense called illegal frequencies trading, has also in a strange stroke of luck, had her three graft charges earlier filed by the Ombudsman raffled off to the Sandiganbayan’s Fourth Division headed by Associate Justice Gregory Ong, an appointee of former President Joseph Estrada, who was toppled by an elite people power revolution that brought her the presidency in a silver platter in 2001.
Ong, the chairman of Fourth Division, nevertheless, said the cases against Mrs. Arroyo in connection with the botched $329 million National Broadband Network (NBN) deal with China’s Zhongxing Telecommunication Equipment (ZTE) Corp. will be treated just like any other ordinary case. Two other graft cases were consolidated in the same court because they were related.
Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teddy Casiño, one of the main complainants against the Arroyo’s, welcomed the development.
“The raffling off of the latest graft charges against ex-Pres. Arroyo to the Sandiganbayan’s Fourth Division and trust that Justice Ong will handle the case with objectivity and fairness despite perceptions that he is favored by GMA, having been previously nominated by her to the Supreme Court,” Casiño said.
“We hope for the case’s early resolution considering it’s an open and shut case. As far as plunder charges are concerned, we are still seeking clarification from the Ombudsman as to the extent of case build-up they did and what options we have in pursuing it. We strongly feel that given enough effort, it can be established that the first couple illegally got $35 million or P1.4 billion in exchange for the contract’s approval, part of which was used to fund the 2007 election cheating operations,” said Casiño.
Mrs. Arroyo was slapped with three criminal charges which include one violation of Section 3-G of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act for entering into a contract which is allegedly disadvantageous to the government while the second case is for having interest for personal gain in a contract which will pass through her office as President and the other one for allegedly accepting gifts or bribes from officials the ZTE Corporation.
Also charged were former First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, former Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Benjamin Abalos, and former Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza while Mrs. Arroyo was the lone respondent in the second and third complaints.
Activist lawyer Roberto Guevarra also said Mrs. Arroyo, along with former National Telecommunication Commission Chairman Ruel Canobas, will be facing another graft charge before the Ombudsman.
He also called on the Senate to conduct an investigation on the illegal frequency trading scam committed by the NTC during the Arroyo administration.
Guevarra dubbed the illegal frequency trading scam as “NBN-ZTE, Jr.” which he said was carried out by the Arroyo Administration NTC after the NBN-ZTE deal was exposed and the ensuing public outcry forced the government to cancel the broadband project.
“Now that the opportunity to question Mrs. Arroyo and her husband has presented itself regarding the NBN-ZTE scandal that shook the nation in 2008, it would be proper to raise the case against her and former NTC officials regarding illegal frequencies trading in which a dead broadcasting franchise was resurrected and given to Altimax Broadcasting Corp in 2007,” Guevarra said.
Altimax Broadcasting Corp.(ABC)’s legislative franchise was granted under R.A. 8607 in year 2000.
The said franchise gave Altimax the right to establish, operate and maintain radio and television broadcasting facilities in the Philippines within five years or until 2005.
Nine years after 2000 but ABC neither constructed and rolled out its transmitters, towers, relay stations necessary to carry out its franchise; nor did it produce and air television or radio programs.
It was learned tht upon NTC’s own inspection of Altimax’s offices and stations, NTC itself reported the same as fictitious since no Altimax offices or stations ever existed.
“ABC’s moribund franchise — which should have been deemed revoked in 2005 as mandated under R.A. 8607 and whose Provisional Authority to operate was in fact cancelled in 2007 by the NTC — somehow limped like a zombie until 2009 when all of a sudden, the NTC recalled its cancellation order and renewed its grant of Provisional Authority to Altimax. As it turned out, Globe bought into Altimax and transformed the franchise for a ‘National Broadcasting Network’ into a ‘National Broadband Network’ which blatantly violates the congressional franchise,” Guevarra said.
Guevarra likened the telecom scam to the scandalous NBN-ZTE deal in that a single platform designed to establish the National Broadband Network to connect all government agencies and offices was split into 2 or more similar broadband projects of the Arroyo Adminstration which sired the controversial CyberEd and the ZTE-NBN projects.
Last October 2011, Sen. Trillanes lambasted the Globe-Altimax-Innove deal for depriving the government of revenues while Sen. Jinggoy Estrada in a privilege speech before the Senate characterized the Globe-Altimax-NTC deal as “anomalous” and called for the recall of frequencies irregularly issued to Altimax.
Guevarra said that he has talked with whistleblowers who will expose how the former president pressured the NTC through then Commissioner Ruel Canobas to revive the dead Altimax franchise where hundreds of millions of pesos in commissions were to be made from this illegal frequency trading.
Guevarra filed a complaint before the NTC to revoke the use of the frequencies assigned to Globe-Altimax-Innove, re-allocate for higher fees to interested parties and to collect from Globe-Altimax-Innove unpaid Spectrum Users Fees amounting to more than P100 million. Guevarra said that after the Senate conducts an inquiry into this scam, he will prepare graft charges against the concerned NTC officials and against Arroyo.
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GMA’s ZTE cases go to Erap appointee
By Michael Punongbayan
The Philippine Star
The Philippine Star
MANILA, Philippines – The criminal charges filed against Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for her alleged involvement in the anomalous national broadband network (NBN) deal were raffled off yesterday to the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division chaired by Associate Justice Gregory Ong, an appointee of former President Joseph Estrada.
Presiding Justice Francisco Villaruz, in the presence of other magistrates, supervised the drawing of numbered balls to determine which court will hear the cases.
“The case of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, three cases, goes to the Fourth Division,” he later announced, with defense lawyers led by Arroyo’s counsel Jay Flaminiano and media as witnesses.
After the raffle, Ong vowed to give no special treatment to Arroyo.
“All cases here in the Sandiganbayan will be given the same treatment even if it involves the former president of the country,” he said.
“We will treat this as an ordinary case like any other case pending before the Sandiganbayan,” said Ong, a former regional trial court (RTC) judge and former government prosecutor.
Sandiganbayan executive clerk of court and spokesman Renato Bocar said a warrant of arrest against Arroyo and the other respondents, including former first gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, former elections chief Benjamin Abalos Sr., and former transportation and communications secretary Leandro Mendoza may be issued within the next 10 days.
He, however, added that if the magistrates of the anti-graft court’s Fourth Division find insufficient reason to proceed with the trial, they can also order the outright dismissal of the cases.
“They have to do that within a period of 10 days,” he said, adding that the two graft cases and the third for violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees filed against Arroyo were raffled off to only one division of the Sandiganbayan because the cases arose from the same transactions, involve the same witnesses, and apparently the same set of documents.
Strict but fair
The Sandiganbayan Fourth Division headed by Ong has Associate Justices Jose Hernandez and Maria Cristina Cornejo as members.
Ong’s court is known to be very strict but also very fair in its handling of cases, which is why lawyers appearing before it come prepared or face the possibility of being openly embarrassed.
Ong even gave the media a taste of who he is yesterday when he turned down a request for him to hold the number four ball for a photo after the Arroyo cases were raffled off to his sala.
“There is no need for me to be showing the number four,” he said before issuing a short statement on how the Arroyo cases will not be given special attention.
STAR research show that Ong was appointed to the Sandiganbayan in 1998 by Estrada, who was convicted of plunder by a Special Division of the same court a few years later.
Before becoming a Sandiganbayan magistrate, Ong was a Pasig RTC heinous crimes court judge for six years, appointed by former President Fidel Ramos in 1992.
He started his legal career in government as a public prosecutor in Manila appointed by former President Corazon Aquino, the mother of President Aquino.
Ong, 58, a product of the San Beda Law School, handled a number of controversial cases at the Sandiganbayan, including a perjury case against former military comptroller Carlos Garcia who was convicted but later acquitted by the Supreme Court (SC).
He is also hearing a civil case against former military comptroller Jacinto Ligot, the separate graft case filed against Abalos also in relation to the NBN deal, and the walis tingting (broomstick) graft case of former Parañaque City mayor Joey Marquez, who was also convicted but again later cleared by the SC.
Ong also became popular in 2007 after then president Arroyo appointed him to the Supreme Court, a move that was blocked because of issues concerning his citizenship.
Though he was eventually declared a natural-born Filipino, he did not get to sit as an SC magistrate because his appointment papers had been returned to Malacañang.
Hernandez and Cornejo, on the other hand, are Arroyo appointees who were appointed on March 9, 2004 and March 1, 2010, respectively.
Objective trial
Mr. Arroyo welcomed yesterday the raffling of the case against him and his wife to the Sandiganbayan’s Fourth Division.
He said he expects a fair and objective trial before the Sandiganbayan.
“I’m sure that Justice Ong is a very fair judge, as are the others in his division,” Mr. Arroyo told The STAR when sought for comment.
He said he has not yet availed himself of the services of a lawyer for the NBN case but indicated that he is likely going to tap the expertise of Ferdinand Topacio, who earlier represented him and won the case of the watchlist order against the Department of Justice.
He earlier said he was surprised that the Office of the Ombudsman filed the charges against him and his wife since the contract was cancelled.
“That contract was abrogated so there’s no damage done,” Mr. Arroyo said. “Also why was she (Arroyo) charged, when she did not sign it (contract)?”
Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño also welcomed the development and said he trusts that Ong “will handle the case with objectivity and fairness despite perceptions that he is favored by GMA (Arroyo’s initials), having been previously nominated by her to the Supreme Court.”
Mendoza’s motion
Meanwhile, hours after the cases were raffled, Mendoza filed an omnibus motion asking the Sandiganbayan to defer any further proceedings pending the resolution of a motion for reconsideration that he has filed before the Office of the Ombudsman.
He said he has already been cleared of any liability in the resolution of the Ombudsman dated April 21, 2009 which recommended the first graft case against Abalos and former National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) director general Romulo Neri.
Mendoza said the NBN deal with China’s ZTE Corp. is not “manifestly and grossly disadvantageous” to the government when compared to the offer of the losing bidder, Amsterdam Holdings Inc. (AHI).
“The ZTE contract was actually advantageous to the government, more so than AHI’s proposal, in terms of coverage, cost against deliverables, data security, track record of the proponent and other significant factors,” he said.
He said the contract price rose from $262 million to $329 million “because of the significant expansion of its coverage and substantial increase in deliverables,” including 300 backbone stations, 30 network nodes, 300 base stations and 25,844 customer premises equipment, among others.
“As regards track record, which is of fundamental importance particularly in projects of this scale, ZTE surpassed AHI immensely. ZTE is a recognized player in the integration of telecommunications systems and is the largest listed telecom in the Hong Kong and Shenzhen stock exchanges. On the other hand, AHI is a holding company with no experience in telecommunications,” he said.
Through his lawyers, Mendoza said he is also filing a motion for judicial determination of probable cause which should be heard if his motion for reconsideration is denied. – With Paolo Romero
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More cases up vs Arroyo
By Jun Pasaylo and Dennis Carcamo
The Philippine Star
The Philippine Star
MANILA, Philippines – Beleaguered Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will face more graft complaints on top of the three charges that were raffled today at the 4th Division of the Sandiganbayan .
Early today, three graft cases against Arroyo in relation to the botched NBN-ZTE deal were raffled to the 4th Division of Sandiganbayan.
Among the respondents of the complaints included former first gentleman Mike Arroyo, former election chief Benjamin Abalos and former transportation chair Leandro Mendoza.
In an interview with reporters, Associate Justice and Division Chairman Gregory Ong vowed no special treatment for the former President and her co-accused.
Meantime, Mrs. Arroyo along with former National Telecommunication Commission chairman Ruel Canobas will be facing graft charge before the Ombudsman over allegations of illegal frequencies trading, said lawyer Roberto Guevarra.
Guevarra dubbed the new allegation as “NBN-ZTE Jr.”, which was carried out by the Arroyo administration after the NBN-ZTE deal was foiled.
“Ngayong nagsimula na ang pag-uusisa kay kay GMA at FG sa kanilang pagkakasangot sa NBN-ZTE scandal, sana naman ito ay simula na rin ng pag-uusig at pag-uusisa sa NBN-ZTE junior,”he said.
He also pointed out that the illegal frequencies trading resulted to the resurrection of Altimax Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)in 2007.
Guevarra is referring to the revival ABC’s legislative franchise, which expire in 2005.
The franchise allowed Altimax to establish, operate and maintain radio and television broadcasting facilities in the Philippines within five years or until 2005.
Nine years after, ABC has neither constructed transmitters, towers, relay stations, produce and air television or radio programs necessary to carry out its franchise.
Upon inspection, NTC reported that no Altimax offices or stations ever existed.
“It turned out, Globe bought Altimax and transformed the franchise for a National Broadcasting Network into a National Broadband Network, which blatantly violates the congressional franchise,” Guevarra added.
Last October 2011, Sen. Antonio Trillanes lambasted the Globe-Altimax-Innove deal for depriving the government of revenues while Sen. Jinggoy Estrada said the Globe-Altimax-NTC deal was anomalous.
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