Ex-ally fingers Philippine leader in corruption probe
MANILA (AFP) - - A former close ally of Philippine President Gloria Arroyo delivered the first salvo Monday in an impeachment hearing, accusing her of having direct knowledge of a controversial nationwide broadband deal involving Chinese company ZTE.
Testifying before the House of Representatives, congressman Jose de Venecia said Arroyo had given her approval to the deal after a secret meeting in the state-run firm’s headquarters in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen in 2006.
The ZTE scandal forms the main basis in the latest bid to impeach Arroyo over corruption. Three previous attempts have failed.
The House Justice Committee will spend most of the week hearing evidence supporting the bid before deciding whether or not to proceed and impeach the president.
Political analysts, however, say that Arroyo controls the House and that it is unlikely the impeachment bid will succeed.
De Venecia’s son, Joey, lost out on the bid for the broadband contract last year and testified before a previous senate hearing alleging widespread corruption and massive overpricing of the 329-million-dollar deal.
It was his testimony, political observers say, that cost his father the speaker’s chair, which he had held for more than a decade. De Venecia lost the chair in a vote earlier this year to a close Arroyo ally.
In his testimony Monday, Jose de Venecia said Arroyo’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, and former elections chief Benjamin Abalos brokered “backroom negotiations” that led to ZTE getting the lucrative contract, which was later cancelled by Arroyo.
He said his son was later told to back off and offered a 10-million-dollar bribe to quietly withdraw.
“Now, pray tell me, what is the president of the Philippines doing there at the ZTE headquarters? Pray tell me, what is the husband of the president doing there (in the company of those) bidding for a massive project in the Philippines?,” de Venecia said, and showed a picture of the first couple during a golf trip in Shenzhen.
“Let me say to you, my colleagues in the House of Representatives, that pictures do not lie,” he said in his first congressional appearance to address the issue.
“President Arroyo has to do a lot of answering,” he said.
De Venecia said Arroyo had also bribed congressmen with huge amounts to kill the impeachment bid, while he and his son have been receiving death threats.
Arroyo’s aides were not immediately available to react. The president meanwhile has been visiting Peru for the annual APEC summit.
source Yahoo
