MANILA. Administration Sen. Miriam Santiago yesterday fired the first salvo in what appears to be moves to discredit whistleblower Jose "Joey" de Venecia III on the controversial national broadband network (NBN) deal between the Philippine government and ZTE Corp., ABS-CBN News reported.

"He lost the bid, but he is not even trying for a rebidding. Instead, he is spraying automatic gunfire on the First Gentleman, Atty. Jose Miguel Arroyo, COMELEC (Commission on Elections) Chair Benjamin Abalos and DOTC (Department of Transportation and Communicatiosn) Secretary Leandro Mendoza. This is exceedingly strange," Santiago said.

De Venecia named Mrs. Arroyo's spouse as the "mystery man" who told him to back out of the allegedly overpriced NBN deal.

"I have previously mentioned to reveal the identity of the mystery man under oath and in the proper forum. It is with a heavy heart that I cannot deny that it was First Gentleman Mike Arroyo," de Venecia said in his testimony during the Senate inquiry.

The businessman, however, said he was not aware if Mr. Arroyo benefited from the NBN contract. De Venecia said he thought at that time that Mr. Arroyo was only helping Abalos to convince him to drop Amsterdam Holdings, Inc.'s application for the project. De Venecia is AHI's majority stockholder.

He said Mr. Arroyo pointed a finger at his face and told him to "back off" during a "reconciliatory meeting" between him, de Venecia, and Abalos. The meeting was arranged by Mendoza at the Wack-Wack Golf and Country Club in Mandaluyong City sometime mid-March.

Santiago said that de Venecia has to explain what group he is representing as she voiced her suspicion that the whistleblower was being funded by some forces out to oust President Arroyo before her term ends on 2010.

HIGH DECIBEL LEVEL

Santiago said that the political noise that de Venecia has created cannot come out of nowhere.

"The political noise has reached a very high decibel level. Producing that kind of noise is very expensive. So where is the money coming from?" she said.

De Venecia's AHI lost to ZTE Corp. in the bidding in the project.

Santiago also said that there is a need to conduct a background check on de Venecia. "[The] Senate hearings should be able to determine what his motive is, and who is funding him, if any," she added.

The senator also said that if the alleged participation of Mr. Arroyo in the transaction is not satisfactorily explained, it would be hard to get the Senate approval of the 2008 budget that includes part of the payment for the project's loan. The national budget bill is already on the public hearing stage.

"That's got to be the shocker of the month. Someone is telling a very big lie. Which party is peddling the lie will hold the key to Senate approval of the loan," she said.

'FICTITIOUS SAVINGS'

Sen. Manuel Roxas II, chairman of the Senate trade and commerce committee that is also investigating the NBN-ZTE contract, urged the President to rescind the deal with ZTE Corp.

"I think that there is nothing that compels the government from pushing through with what is clearly a controversial and anomalous contract. The President should just say, 'no, enough,'" Roxas said in a statement.

Immediately after the Senate hearing, Roxas pointed out two issues he believed were revealed during the inquiry.

"Nakita natin na doon sa issue kung kailangan ba talaga natin ito hindi napakita na kailangan natin ito at ito ang tamang solusyon sa pangangailangan ng ating bansa.

Pangalawa doon naman sa issue na kung may pangungurakot at may bribery o kung may impluwensya na ginamit dito, mayroong testigo na nagsasabi na talagang may nakikialam dito sa kontrata na ito," Roxas said after the hearing.

(It has not been shown that we need this [NBN] and that this is the correct solution for our country's needs. Secondly in the issue whether there was graft and bribery involved or if undue influence exerted for its approval, there is a witness who is saying that there was one intervening for this contract.)

Roxas also said that the so-called savings from the ZTE Corp. bid was fictitious.

"Government's reasons are savings of P4 billion in communications costs per year, better interconnectivity among government agencies, and exclusivity…. But it seems that supposed savings from the deal are fictitious, the design is inappropriate for the country's needs, and the manner in which the project was undertaken is anomalous," said Roxas.

Ramon Sales, former head of the Commission on Information and Communication Technology said during the Senate hearing that his office supported the ZTE deal from a "business point of view" as cited computations to support the argument.

Sales said that the government spends P4 billion annually in telecommunication costs.

He cited a computation that the government could only save P17 billion if it accepted the offer made by AHI for the 20-year duration of the NBN project.

Sales said the government could save P30.4 billion from ZTE's offer in the same period.

Roxas, however, said implementing the NBN to save on communications costs is tantamount to saying, "Let's build a new highway parallel to the NLEX (North Luzon Expressway) or SLEX (South Luzon Expressway) exclusive for government vehicles, so we will be able to save on transport costs."

"Running a broadband network is not a core competence of the government," Roxas added.

PRESIDENT ARROYO ASKED TO RESIGN

Meanwhile, Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casiño said that Mrs. Arroyo is the "mystery woman" in the controversy since the illegal NBN-ZTE project allegedly brokered by Abalos has the full support of the President and her husband.

Casiño said Mr. Arroyo was present during the brokering stage while the President's presence was felt on the signing of the contract in China on April 21.

He added that the couple cannot wash their hands off the deal since their fingerprints are found in every chapter of the controversial project.

Mrs. Arroyo, he said, should be made accountable for the scandal involving public funds.

Another opposition leader, Makati City Mayore Jejomar Binay, president of the United Opposition, renewed public calls for Mrs. Arroyo to "do an Abe" and resign after de Venecia tagged her husband as the "mystery man" in the bribery scandal. Binay was referring to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who resigned recently following a scandal.

"We have to make our public officials accountable for their misdeeds, or else when and how do we stop corruption in governance?" Binay said.

Binay said the occupants of Malacañang are the real destablizers of their own government.

The mayor also urged members of the House of Representatives to cross party lines and proceed with impeachment proceedings against Mrs. Arroyo and Abalos.

He called on the public to express their disgust against the offenses of the Arroyo administration by participating in the UNO-led rally at 1 p.m. on Morayta in Manila on September 21.

For his part, Davao City Rep. Prospero Nograles advised the public not to specualte on the alleged role of the President's husband in the project.

"In the Senate hearing today (Tuesday), Joey stated very clearly and categorically that the First Gentleman was not at all personally involved in the NBN-ZTE deal," said Nograles.

Nograles said that de Venecia also stated that Mr. Arroyo probably only tried to pacify the conflicting parties' media war and told the son of House Speaker Jose de Venecia to "back off" since his company had already lost the deal to ZTE.

"I take it to mean something like do not 'rock the boat" anymore because it's already finished," said Nograles.

He said the public should just await the Supreme Court's final decision on the ZTE deal controversy.

"Anyway, eventually all this will reach the Supreme Court. Better let's just wait for its finality," said Nograles.

The Supreme Court on September 11 issued a temporary restraining order on the implementation of the $329-million NBN deal between the DOTC and the ZTE based on the petition of Iloilo Vice-Gov. Rolex Suplico that questioned the deal's constitutionality.