BY PETER TABINGO
MALAYA
Former Speaker and Pangasinan Rep. Jose de Venecia Jr. testified yesterday at the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division that he joined President Gloria Arroyo, her husband Mike and former Comelec chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. on a visit to the corporate headquarters of ZTE Corp., in Shenzen, China in November 2006 where they dined and played golf with the company’s officials.
De Venecia’s testimony was part of the prosecution’s evidence in the graft trial of Abalos for his alleged unlawful intervention in the overpriced $329 million NBN-ZTE contract.
Under direct examination by Assistant Special Prosecutor Jacinto dela Cruz Jr., De Venecia told the graft court that he received a surprise invitation from Arroyo to play golf while he and his wife Gina were vacationing in Hong Kong during the Halloween break of 2006.
“I didn’t ask where. I thought it was nearby. It was already when we were on the road that she said we were going to Shenzen,” De Venecia said.
He said he joined the Arroyos and Abalos for breakfast at the golf clubhouse and some Chinese personalities that he later came to know were city officials of Shenzen and officials of ZTE.
He said they played a round of golf with Abalos and “two or three” Chinese going in the first flight while he stayed with the Arroyo couple in the second flight.
After the game, De Venecia said their group went to have lunch at the ZTE headquarters.
He said he was “surprised” about the presence of Abalos as neither of the Arroyos informed him that the Comelec chairman would be there.
He said in his mind, he attributed it to the fact that Abalos was an avid golfer.
During lunch, he said a banker whose name he could no longer recall made a pitch that their bank was prepared and willing to provide a “concession loan” to a project proposal of the ZTE in the Philippines.
The Office of the Ombudsman, in separate graft charges filed last December against the Arroyos, former Transport Secretary Leandro Mendoza and Abalos, said the golf game and lunch with ZTE officials constituted criminal offenses for the Arroyo couple because it exhibited their unusual interest in the NBN project.
Prosecutor Dela Cruz marked as evidence a picture taken of the Arroyos, Abalos, De Venecia and a Chinese national on the golf course.
The picture was included in the publication of “Global Filipino – An Authorized Biography of Jose De Venecia Jr.”
Aside from the presence of Abalos, De Venecia said he also noted the absence of media during the visit to Shenzen.
“One of the revelations was, there were no members of the Press. I have joined the former President on many previous trips…practically the entire Malacañang Press Corps was there,” he recalled.
On cross examination by defense lawyer Gabriel Villareal, De Venecia admitted his son, businessman Joey de Venecia III, had told him about his interest in bidding for the NBN project as early as August 2006.
He said he felt proud about Joey’s enthusiasm for the project because his proposal was based on the build-operate-and-transfer scheme that would entail no initial expense on the part of the government.
During the trip to Shenzen, the former Speaker said then President Arroyo told him she thought Joey’s proposal was “very good (maganda).”
Villareal pointed out to the graft court that based on the affidavit submitted to the Senate Blue Ribbon inquiry on the NBN-ZTE deal, the younger De Venecia stated he submitted his proposal only on December 2006 while the Shenzen trip took place a month earlier.
The elder De Venecia explained there were already discussions about the project even before his son Joey formally submitted his proposal in behalf of Amsterdam Holdings Inc.
The former Speaker said aside from what transpired in Shenzen, he did not speak with Arroyo about the ZTE contract again “until many, many months later” when he asked her to cancel the contract because by then reports of massive irregularities relative to the project had come out in the media.
Prosecutors said they will present two or three witnesses at the next hearing on March 5 and 6, including engineer Dante Madriaga, a former ZTE consultant who has testified he had personal knowledge that former President Arroyo received kickbacks during the signing of the NBN-ZTE contract.
No comments:
Post a Comment