Abalos again!!!???

[claRkEnt]

it is becoming a big scandal now and yet malacanang is putting up a gag order on the issue! And they claim GMA is really serious in solving corruption and there's no truth daw na top sa corruption ang RP. nagagawa nga naman ng UTANG NA LOOB at BLACKMAIL!

[explorer]

5 Big Business groups seek Abalos's resignation

By Ronnel Domingo
Inquirer
Last updated 01:33am (Mla time) 09/08/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Five influential business groups and think tanks reiterated Friday that their call for Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. to resign for his "indiscreet conduct" in the controversial national broadband network deal.

In a joint statement, the Makati Business Club, Management Association of the Philippines, Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, Foundation for Economic Freedom Inc. and Action for Economic Reforms said they were "appalled that the culture of impunity among government officials appears to have spread to an extent exceeding that of all past administrations."

"A glaring example is that of Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos who had no business in allowing himself to be entertained by officials of ZTE Corporation, a potential contractor of the Republic, particularly considering he had an important electoral exercise to administer. His indiscreet conduct and absence from his official duties could only have happened if he believed he was immune from sanctions. We therefore reiterate our call for Chairman Abalos to resign," the business groups said.

Abalos has been accused of allegedly helping to broker the $330-million broadband deal with China-based ZTE Corp. by connecting key Cabinet officials like Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza with executives of the Chinese company.

The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) is the initiator of the NBN project which aims to build a backbone to interconnect the telephone, cellular and Internet services of all government offices.

But the business groups said the government should get its hands off the national broadband network project, saying business is better left alone and in the hands of the private sector.

They also urged Mendoza to immediately rescind the contract with ZTE.

The business groups called on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to take immediate action to rectify the blatant wrongdoing of public officials, "lest she be accused of condoning them."

Abalos, however, shrugged off calls for his resignation, saying the business groups have no grounds for such a call since he has done nothing wrong.

"Why. What action have I committed? On what ground? Just because they are saying I brokered (the deal)," Abalos asked.

MBC executive director Alberto A. Lim said the business groups issued the joint statement because they wanted to uphold transparency and good governance.

The statement came out as a paid ad in Friday's issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net).

Lim said the deal with ZTE "clearly lacks transparency [as] there was no bidding."

"This is a sign that there is no level playing field," he said.

"What is more, the NBN contract is lost or appears to be lost. We do not even know if there was a design for the project because some say there is none," Lim said in a phone interview.

If there was no project design on which to base the contract price, then the quoted $330 million was even more questionable, he said.

Moreover, the government is muscling in on a telecommunications service project, which is something that the private sector should be providing, Lim said.

"We have a law that discourages government from doing what the business sector should be doing. The government is not following the law," in the NBN case, he said.

According to Lim, the proper way would have been to let the private sector build the NBN through the build-operate-transfer scheme, and to let them choose their own technology.

"Let us not be [a too-willing conduit for] China's recycling of its excess foreign exchange reserves like what the Arabs do with their petro dollars," Lim said.

Lim said the need for an NBN was questionable in the first place. He said it would only cause over-capacity as there already are two existing telecommunications backbones--that of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and of the Telecom Infrastructure Corp. of the Phils., a consortium of PLDT's rivals.

"Either way, an NBN would only mean rising costs for consumers in terms of higher prices for the recovery of costs and in taxes for the payment of a loan that would fund the project," Lim said.

The Inquirer newspaper tried to reach Mendoza for his comments on the business groups' demand for the ZTE contract to be rescinded, but both his mobile phones were unreachable. Text messages went unanswered as well.

Calls and text messages to DOTC Assistant Secretary Lorenzo Formoso's mobile phone also went unanswered, as were messages to the department's public affairs personnel.

The House of Representatives has adopted the rules on impeachment, partly in anticipation of the possible filing of an impeachment case against Abalos.

The rules adopted last Tuesday were the same ones used during the two failed impeachment cases filed against President Arroyo in the previous Congress.

[explorer]

De Venecia III confirms Abalos bribe attempt

September 08, 2007
Updated 21:05:49 (Mla time)
Juliet Labog-Javellana
Inquirer

SYDNEY -- The son of Speaker Jose de Venecia said Saturday it was high time for Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos to take a leave of absence from the poll body after lobbying for the awarding of the $329 million national broadband network deal to a Chinese telecommunications company.

Jose "Joey'' de Venecia III, speaking by telephone from Manila with reporters covering President Macapagal-Arroyo at the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Sydney, said Abalos tried to bribe him with $10 million to back out from the NBN project in favor of ZTE, a big telecommunications company.

The younger De Venecia is co-founder of the Amsterdam Holdings Inc., one of the rival proponents sidetracked when the contract was awarded to ZTE.

He said Abalos should take a leave from the Comelec while the investigation on the ZTE deal is being conducted in different venues, including the House of Representatives, the Senate, the Ombudsman and the Supreme Court.

"Out of delicadeza, he should go on leave,'' the younger De Venecia said. He said Abalos should take a leave amid allegations that he was the godfather of the ZTE deal, and that he successfully lobbied for the Chinese firm in exchange for financial and other concessions from ZTE.

"If he's being harassed by all these allegations of impropriety, he should step down for a while. Lobbying for that contract is a big issue (against Abalos), and all those trips (to China courtesy of ZTE) are inappropriate,'' De Venecia said.

De Venecia has said Abalos offered him the bribe when they met in his office at the Wack-Wack Golf and Country Club, which Abalos heads, some time in December last year. He said Abalos pleaded with him to let him get the contract for the ZTE because he had nothing more to do after his retirement.

De Venecia said Abalos met him six times in Wack-Wack to convince him to back out, but he said he refused because he believed his firm, AHI, offered a better deal to the government.

De Venecia said Abalos even invited him to Shenzen, China last Dec. 27 for a meeting with ZTE officials, during which Abalos reportedly bragged that he would be the most powerful person in the Philippines during the election period.

Abalos has vehemently denied the allegations and said Saturday he has instructed his lawyers to file libel charges against De Venecia.

[jeffrocks]

Hearsay again...demolition job on the go.how can they put a person down without evidence tsk tsk tsk parang lumusob sa gyera na walang dalang bala,
Ignorance of the law excuses no one...di na uubra yung street parliamentarian ngayon

[carscout]

Abalos has vehemently denied the allegations and said Saturday he has instructed his lawyers to file libel charges against De Venecia.

How can this bastard put a face of indignant denial when even the dumbest person know that the ZTE deal he help pushed was a scam...

[jpdm]

di kaya nag-iipon na si abalos kasi malapit na syang mag-retire at malapit na rin umalis sa poder amo sya sa 2010

[NightWinger]

Wala kasi transparency dito sa Pilipinas. D mo alam kung saan napupunta mga budget ng government. At d mo rin alam kung saan galing ang kayamanan nila!

[explorer]

Speaker’s son: Abalos bugged me
Says poll chair told him of wiretap

By Tony Bergonia
Inquirer
Last updated 02:59am (Mla time) 09/14/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- The head of a Filipino firm that was sidetracked in the $329-million National Broadband Network (NBN) project said he was wiretapped by Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos to monitor his conversations with officials of Chinese firm ZTE Corp., which bagged the NBN deal.

Jose “Joey” de Venecia III, majority shareholder of tech firm Amsterdam Holdings Inc. (AHI), said in an affidavit that it was Abalos himself, in a fit of rage, who admitted the wiretapping.

Asked about De Venecia’s new allegation against him, Abalos declined to comment.

“When I am confronted with the actual facts in a proper forum, then that is the time I will comment,” Abalos said yesterday.

In the affidavit, which was notarized on Sept. 11, De Venecia said that in the course of Abalos’ attempts to push AHI out of the project, he had conversations with ZTE officials to explore the possibility of a tie-up.

ZTE officials, according to the affidavit, asked to meet with De Venecia and officials of AHI “to negotiate for acceptable contractual terms.”

“I informed Chairman Abalos via text message that it appeared that a compromise deal might be in the offing,” said De Venecia’s affidavit.

The wiretapping admission, said the affidavit, came after Abalos arranged a meeting with De Venecia at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club in Mandaluyong City with Elmer Soneja, transportation and communications assistant secretary and one of the key figures in the ZTE deal.
De Venecia said he was with AHI consultant Richard Pratte at that meeting.

Angry call

After that meeting, the affidavit said, De Venecia received an angry call from Abalos, but didn’t know why at first.

“Chairman Abalos called me up and started screaming, shouting invectives at me,” he said in his affidavit.

“Salbahe kang bata ka. P….ina mo, kung alam lang ng tatay mo ang ginagawa mo, p….ina mo (You’re a bad kid. SOB, if your Dad only knew what you were doing, SOB),” De Venecia recalled Abalos telling him on the phone.

De Venecia said he was startled and didn’t know what made Abalos blow his top, “until in the middle of his ranting, he said that ‘I tapped your telephone.’”

Abalos, according to the affidavit, had monitored De Venecia’s phone and found that the businessman had been telling ZTE officials that the biggest obstacle to the broadband deal was Abalos himself because the Comelec chair “wanted a $130-million kickback from the project.”

“Isn’t that illegal?” De Venecia recalled telling Abalos when informed of the wiretapping during their phone conversation.

“Gusto mo ng transcript (You want a transcript?)” he recalled Abalos as saying in reply.

Gangland-style dealing

The affidavit narrated the gangland-style dealings that De Venecia said led to the signing of a $329-million supply contract to build the NBN by Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza and ZTE vice president Yu Yong on April 21 in the presence of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

In the affidavit, De Venecia said the first time he met Abalos about the broadband deal was at breakfast at the house of his father, Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., sometime in December last year.

“At the breakfast, Chairman Abalos expressed his desire to cooperate with AHI in building the NBN network,” the younger De Venecia’s affidavit said.

After that meeting, he said, Abalos arranged for another breakfast meeting at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club that was also attended by Ruben Reyes, Leo San Miguel, Jimmy Paz and Edgar Dula Torre.

Reyes, a businessman who lives in Wack Wack Subdivision, is a schoolmate and close friend of President Arroyo’s younger brother, Diosdado Jr., in De La Salle University and a golfing buddy of Abalos at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club.

His name was mentioned in the “Hello Garci” tapes as discussing with ex-Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano the chances of two party-list groups identified with the Arroyo administration.

Little is known of San Miguel. Paz is Abalos’ chief of staff while Dula Torre is a former ranking police officer.

Why they were there at the meeting wasn’t clear.

“During that meeting, it became apparent that Chairman Abalos was backing ZTE’s effort to undertake the NBN project,” said De Venecia’s affidavit.

“Chairman Abalos told me: ’Joey, I want to do something when I retire, I want to pursue something in the telecommunications industry,’” it said.

Bribe offer

“He offered me Ten Million United States Dollars … in exchange for AHI’s backing off and withdrawing completely from the NBN project, saying that I should let him be, as the project would be, in his words, his ’last hurrah,’” the affidavit said.

Abalos had denied the allegations, but admitted he knew some ZTE officials because they were his golfing buddies.

He said he would answer De Venecia’s allegations in the proper forum.

De Venecia said he declined Abalos’ offer and instead, offered the Comelec chair the position of director or chair of AHI, “but he did not agree to the same.”

He said it wasn’t the last time he would hear from Abalos.

Abalos set up a meeting at his Comelec office with De Venecia.

At the meeting in Comelec, “I found in attendance DOTC Assistant Secretary Lorenzo Formoso III.”

Formoso was the first official who announced the loss of the Philippine government’s copy of the April 21 supply contract with ZTE.

In a previous interview by phone with the Inquirer, Formoso said he and other proponents of the ZTE deal were ready to defend it.

“This is not an overnight deal,” he told the Inquirer.

‘My partner’

De Venecia said Abalos introduced him to Formoso as “my partner.”

“Chairman Abalos’ introducing me as ’his partner’ is not entirely without basis,” De Venecia’s affidavit said. “As I, on several occasions, flatly (but respectfully) refused his offer of $10,000,000 to pull out AHI’s unsolicited (broadband) proposal, [and] he had broached the idea of a partnership between AHI and ZTE instead.”

More meetings, according to De Venecia, took place between him and Abalos, who “would consistently request for meetings … so that he could convince me to either back off from the deal or be his ’partner.’”

“All told, we had about five or six meetings during the period (December 2006),” he said in his affidavit.

The requests for meetings brought them to Shenzen, China also sometime in December last year (the affidavit said December 2007, a typographical error) where Abalos was to introduce De Venecia to officials of the ZTE.

De Venecia said “I initially begged off … as I already had previous dealings with ZTE, as former chairman of Broadband Philippines.”

Broadband Philippines’ equipment supplier was ZTE.

Kempinski Hotel

On Abalos’ insistence, De Venecia said, a meeting was held Dec. 27, 2006, with ZTE officials at the Kempinski Hotel, “which I knew to be the favorite hangout of ZTE officials.”

At that meeting with Abalos and De Venecia in Shenzen, De Venecia said in his affidavit, were ZTE vice president Yu Yong, ZTE director Fan Yang “and some other company officers.”

Also present were the same people who were at the Wack Wack meeting -- Ruben Reyes, Leo San Miguel, Edgar Dula Torre and Jimmy Paz.

De Venecia said at that meeting, “I was again introduced by Chairman Abalos as his partner,” but it wasn’t the introduction that shocked him.

“Chairman Abalos demanded from the ZTE officials the money promised him, because he claimed that ’the President and the Speaker’ were waiting for it,” he said in his affidavit.

[explorer]

Name dropping

“I am certain that throughout my meetings with Chairman Abalos, that my President and the Speaker, my father, absolutely had no inkling about the details and absurdities in this project,” said De Venecia’s affidavit.

He said he asked to be allowed to talk with Abalos in private, during which “I told him it was highly inappropriate and wrong to mention the names of my President and the Speaker.”

“I told him (Abalos) that my President and the Speaker are well-respected in China, and that his words to the ZTE officials were simply unacceptable,” said De Venecia’s affidavit.

‘What about money we advanced?’

When he returned to the meeting with Abalos, De Venecia said, “Abalos insisted on getting the money promised him.”

“ZTE officials, however, stated that they would release the money only after the ‘loan documents’ were finalized,” said De Venecia.

“At this point, when ZTE officials refused to hand over the money (that) Chairman Abalos was asking for, he started banging his fists on the table and started shouting at the ZTE officials, who refused to budge,” said the affidavit.

But one Chinese official, said the affidavit, “countered with a question.”

“What about the money we already advanced, Mr. Chairman?” De Venecia recalled ZTE director Fan Yang as asking when Abalos allegedly insisted on getting the money.

“Chairman Abalos could offer no response.”

After the ZTE director asked the question, “the meeting abruptly ended.”

Diamond Hotel

After the Shenzen meeting, De Venecia said he was again invited by Abalos to another meeting sometime in January, this time at the Diamond Hotel in Manila, also with ZTE officials.

During that meeting, Abalos said the contract was best signed in front of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who was then in Manila.

After that meeting, the affidavit said, De Venecia was sought out by ZTE officials.

Mendoza’s son

De Venecia said in March 2007, he went to his father’s house where he chanced upon Mendoza, who was asking the Speaker to support his son’s congressional bid in Batangas.

Mendoza’s son is now a member of the House of Representatives.

De Venecia said he saw this as an opportunity and approached Mendoza to discuss the NBN.

“Secretary Mendoza responded by saying, ’your project, Joey, is a big problem as Chairman Abalos is so angry at you and wants the NBN project for himself,’” the affidavit said.

Mendoza, the affidavit said, brokered a reconciliation meeting between De Venecia and Abalos, also at Wack Wack and in the presence of the same people who were in previous two meetings -- Ruben Reyes, Leo San Miguel, Jimmy Paz and Edgar Dula Torre.

At that meeting, De Venecia quoted Abalos as saying “he has forgiven me for what I did.”

But Abalos “continued to push me into backing out of the NBN project.”

[chua_riwap]

^^ baka si Doble ang tumulong kay Abalos mag-tapped sa phone ni De Venecia.