MANILA. A "mystery man" is part of the cast of characters behind the $329-million contract awarded to the Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE Corp. to build the National Broadband Network (NBN), reports said.

But businessman Jose "Joey" de Venecia III, son of the Speaker, said he would reveal the person's identity only if asked in the proper legal forum.

De Venecia, cofounder of the losing project proponent Amsterdam Holdings Inc., is set to testify in the Senate's investigation of the ZTE deal at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

"That's a loaded question. I will answer that in the proper forum," he said in a phone interview the other day when asked about the person's identity.

De Venecia said the influential person was present during his meeting with Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos at Wack-Wack Golf and Country Club sometime in March.

He said he had not yet named this person in his interviews with the media. He refused to give clues to the identity or affiliation of the person.

De Venecia said the man came to the "reconciliation meeting" arranged by Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza to patch things up between Abalos and himself.

De Venecia has accused Abalos of trying to bribe him with $10 million to have AHI withdraw its own NBN proposal.

The NBN project aims to build a nationwide hi-tech telecommunications backbone that would link the telephone, cellular and Internet services of all government offices.

De Venecia said that on Abalos' request, he attended five or six meetings at Abalos' office at Wack-Wack, where a number of Abalos' friends and associates were also present, and one meeting in Shenzen, China.

He said he rejected Abalos' alleged bribe offer and appeals to withdraw because he was convinced AHI had a better proposal that would not cost the government anything to build the NBN project.

Abalos has strongly denied De Venecia's allegation that he had offered him a bribe, and threatened to file libel charges against the son of Speaker Jose de Venecia.

De Venecia also said Abalos had taped his telephone conversations with ZTE officials.

He said Abalos himself told him about the wiretapping in a fit of anger.

After this incident, De Venecia said Mendoza arranged the reconciliation meeting at Wack-Wack, where the mystery man was present.

De Venecia said the man told him to back off.

"Umatras ka (Back off)," he quoted the man telling him, his fingers pointed at his face.
"Nabigla ako (I was shocked)," De Venecia said of both the man's presence and his words.

He said the man was apparently brought in to "bully me like a child."

Interviewed twice on the ANC network, the younger De Venecia said the mystery man did not really take part in the negotiations but he believed the man was there only to force him to yield to Abalos' entreaties.

"I think he was brought in by Chairman Abalos basically to put some pressure on me to back out of the contract," De Venecia said on television.

"My impression is that Chairman Abalos brought this person in to bully me, [that] hopefully I would withdraw my application," he told the network.

"My impression is that he was just there to muscle his way [in] and hopefully get to me so that I would back out," De Venecia said.

He said he found the man's presence at the meeting to be improper but he was not sure whether what the man did "is incriminating because I don't know whether he performed an illegal act."

"He was there for one meeting."

Asked if the man was a government official, De Venecia said he "can't say" until he appeared at the Senate.

He said he did not know if the man himself had received any kickbacks.

"Probably," De Venecia said, when asked by ANC if he thought he would be courting "big trouble" should he mention the person's name.

"I guess I am already (in) for big trouble since I came out and I've been receiving death threats," he added.

In the interview with the Inquirer, De Venecia claimed he had received threats from powerful people, including one that supposedly came from Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza.

It was Mendoza who signed the deal with ZTE in China last April in the presence of President Macapagal- Arroyo.

Mendoza dismissed De Venecia's allegations as "fairy tales being woven by a losing bidder."

De Venecia said he had no agenda in making his disclosures except to see the ZTE contract rescinded and reforms instituted to change the Philippines' woeful image abroad.

"I'm fighting the DOTC, I am fighting Chairman Abalos, but I am also conflicted because my father is Speaker of the House," he told ANC. "My father has been quite worried for my own safety ... and that's what's making him angry. 'Why do you have to say all these things? You are risking your life.'"

In the TV interview, De Venecia described the alleged bribes as "a highway robbery and that is something I cannot stomach."