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Gina says Gloria invited former Speaker to ZTE meet

Ask JdV, Palace tells critics on Shenzhen tryst

05/18/2008

It appears that Malacañang is ready on using former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. as a scapegoat over the incriminating photographs that have been released showing President Arroyo in the company of executives of Chinese supplier ZTE which bagged the anomalous $329-million National Broadband Network (NBN) contract.

Senators who are looking into the anomalous deal said the NBN contract may have been sealed during the occasion in Shenzhen, China where the photographs were taken.

Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye had said if there was anything anomalous in the meeting, De Venecia would know since he accompanied Mrs. Arroyo in the trip.

De Venecia’s wife Gina admitted the former Speaker accompanied Mrs. Arroyo in the trip to Shenzhen but he did so upon the President’s invitation.

De Venecia was at the golf game of the First Couple and former Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. and officials of ZTE Corp.

in Shenzhen which happened in 2006, but Mrs. De Venecia said her husband was merely invited to the game.

De Venecia told ABS-CBN News that the former House speaker was at the golf game at the Shenzhen Country Club last November 2, 2006.

Mrs. De Venecia said she and her husband were in Hong Kong to spend All Saints Day when they received a phone call from Mrs. Arroyo, who was billeted at the nearby Four Seasons Hotel, inviting them for lunch.

Mrs. Arroyo subsequently invited the couple to a trip to Shenzhen during the lunch meeting, Mrs. De Venecia said.

Malacanang said it wanted the former Speaker to come out and tell what he knows about the president’s meeting with ZTE Corp. officials where he was present.

In a radio interview, deputy presidential spokesman Anthony Golez said the Palace is not threatened by the Senate’s plan to tap De Venecia as a new witness in the reopened inquiry on the NBN mess.

De Venecia was still House Speaker during the Shenzhen meeting, but he subsequently had a fallout with Mrs. Arroyo that led to his ouster from the Speakership early this year.

“We have nothing to fear as long as what JDV (De Venecia’s initials) would say in the senate are the truth, its only then we would know the malicious accusations against the President has no basis,” golez said.

Golez said there’s nothing incriminating about the photos of Mrs. Arroyo with First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo in a Shenzhen golf game.

“What we only have here were just malicious arguments and malicious statements that the President and the ZTE officials had met, played golf and held a meeting. All these will not be able to point that there was an illegal transaction that happened. All these are speculations and malicious interpretations of pictures and events that happened,” he said.

Earlier, in his weekly press briefing, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita maintained that there’s no secret meeting in Shenzhen, and brought out that De Venecia was present in the meeting.

Ermita said the ZTE issue is being revived because of government efforts to reduce electricity by removing the Lopez family out of the management of power giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco).

“The president was there, First Gentleman and (then) House Speaker Jose De Venecia. I don’t know why Speaker de Venecia was not in the picture but he was there. I believed Cong. De Venecia should also speak on this issue,” he said.

“How would critics claim that the President’s presence in Shenzhen with ZTE officials included a secret meeting? When (then) House Speaker Jose De Venecia was present and are one of those interested in the deal. Everyone knows that our President is in China .

“n fact, the Hong Kong authorities had provided our president an armed security assistance,” he said.

Mrs. De Venecia said upon their arrival in Shenzhen, she was barred by a protocol officer from joining the golf game, saying she was not among those invited.

Mrs. De Venecia said she wondered why she was barred from the group since she usually accompanies the President for golf games.

Bunye earlier claimed there was nothing secret about that meeting, as it was attended by then Opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson, criticized attempts to fend off questions about the meeting with Malacañang claiming it was part of Mrs. Arroyo’s “private time.”

“Malacañang cannot or simply refuses to see the point we are raising. Whether it’s her private time or official, she had already cheated her way to Malacañang and therefore represents 89 million Filipinos wherever she goes,” Lacson said.

Under such circumstances, he said that at best, it would be improper for Mrs. Arroyo to meet with representatives of a bidder, as it sends a “signal” to the other bidders.

Lacson noted that at the time of the meeting, ZTE Corp. took part in the bidding for the Philippine government’s NBN project.

“The only viable explanation for such impropriety,” he said, “would be if someone stood to gain a big tongpats (profit) from the meeting.

On the other hand, Lacson questioned Malacañang’s use of “private time” as its latest weapon in refusing to explain the meeting between Mrs. Arroyo and the ZTE officials.

He noted the Palace had already twisted the principle of executive privilege to thwart the Senate from looking into the $329.48-million ZTE broadband network deal mess.

“Malacañang has the propensity to invent new doctrines in governance. What executive order will it issue now to justify such act of impropriety, presidential private time when committing a crime?” he asked.