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MANILA.- Employees
of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) have revived calls for
disclosure of documents that would shed light on how the $329 million National
Broadband Network (NBN) deal with Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE Corp. was
approved.
"We
believe the continued withholding of these documents has wrought the most damage
to NEDA's integrity and credibility," said the Organization of NEDA Employees
(ONE) Executive Committee, in a statement. "Furthermore, the official release
of these documents will avoid manipulation or fabrication of information."
We
received the ONE's "A Call for Action" statement by e-mail from members
of the Former Senior Government Officials or FSGO, a group critical of President
Arroyo.
The ONE is composed of around 1,200 rank-and-file personnel of the
government's economic planning agency.
Among
the documents the ONE Executive Committee wants to be made public are the following:
1.
Official Correspondences (e.g. Investment Coordination Committee [ICC] Secretariat
Letters/Notices on project approval, NEDA Board confirmation, etc.);
2. Approved
Project Evaluation Reports (PERs) by the ICC Technical Board and Cabinet committee,
and NEDA board;
3. NEDA board resolutions
STAFF
NOT INVOLVED IN SHADY DEAL
In
an interview with abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak, ONE vice-president for external affairs
Aladin Ancheta said disclosure of these documents would show that the NEDA technical
staff were not involved in the NBN-ZTE's questionable transactions.
Allie
Cortez, ONE vice-president for internal affairs, said "we want disclosure
of documents because on the part of technical staff of NEDA, there was an in-depth
evaluation and assessment of the project."
Ancheta
said these documents would also prove the need for an "truly independent
economic and planning agency."
The
NEDA Board is composed of the President as chairman, the Secretary of Socio-Economic
Planning and NEDA Director-General as vice-chairman.
Also
included as members are: the Executive Secretary; the secretaries of the following
departments: Finance; Trade and Industry; Agriculture; Environment and Natural
Resources; Public Works and Highways; Budget and Management; Labor and Employment;
Interior and Local Government; Health; Foreign Affairs; Agrarian Reform; Science
and Technology; Transportation and Communication; Energy; Deputy Governor of the
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
With
this composition, Ancheta said economic planning decisions are affected by politics
since the "hand of the President is too strong."
The
ONE wants "action towards expediting NEDA's independence as provided under
the Constitution."
Under
Section 9 of Article 12 of the Constitution, Ancheta said that "until Congress
provides otherwise, NEDA shall function as the independent planning agency of
the government."
With
what happened in the NBN-ZTE deal, Ancheta said, "we really need to lobby
with Congress to constitute an independent [economic planning] body."
EXECUTIVE
PRIVILEGE
Ancheta
said they are aware that these documents cannot yet be disclosed after the Supreme
Court decided they are covered by "executive privilege."
The
current NEDA director-general Augusto Santos has refused to disclose these documents,
saying it is "premature to release the documents" because the "NBN
Project is not yet a finalized project."
However,
Ancheta and Cortez noted that disclosure and transparency had been the standard
operating procedures practiced by NEDA prior to the NBN-ZTE deal.
On
many occasions, they said the director-general of NEDA would even be the one to
disclose these
documents to the public or through media.
Two
senators-Manuel Roxas II and Benigno Aquino III-have a petition before the Supreme
Court (SC) seeking the release of the documents. The petition is still pending.
Ancheta
said it is now up to the Supreme Court to decide whether to order the disclosure
of these documents.
ROXAS,
AQUINO PETITION
Roxas
told abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak in April that the documents would show "what,
when, who, and why" the project was financed by a Chinese loan instead of
the original plan to finance it through a Build Operate Transfer (BOT) scheme.
"It will reveal or highlight the change in the policy direction of the NBN
deal," he said.
The
supposed contents of these documents could also shed light on the questions that
the SC barred the Senate from asking former NEDA chief Romulo Neri. The major
difference is that what Roxas wants are public documents.
The
three questions that the SC said were covered by executive privilege are: 1) whether
the President followed up the NBN-ZTE project; 2) whether Neri was dictated by
the President to prioritize the ZTE project; and 3) whether the President told
Neri to go ahead and approve the project after being told about the alleged bribe.
Senate
witnesses had alleged that project went to ZTE Corp. so that several parties,
among them the First Couple, could allegedly get commissions. President Arroyo
has denied the allegations.
'RUBBER
STAMP' INSTITUTION?
In
the manifesto, the NEDA employees are also asking their bosses to "reexamine
the [NEDA's business] processes to help avoid similar incidents from occurring
in the future."
Six
former NEDA chiefs-reacting to former NEDA chief Romulo Neri's Senate testimony
on the NBN-ZTE deal-had earlier expressed their disappointment over the way the
agency has turned into a "rubber stamp' institution. These six were: Gerardo
Sicat (Marcos administration), Solita Monsod (Aquino), Cayetano Paderanga Jr.
(Aquino), Cielito Habito (Ramos), Felipe Medalla (Estrada), and Dante Canlas (Arroyo)
Neri's
Senate testimony in September 2007 detailed how the NEDA was compromised to accommodate
a project rife with allegations of bribery. Neri himself claimed that alleged
project mastermind Benjamin Abalos Sr.-who was then the chief of the Commission
on Elections-offered him a P200-million bribe to approve the project.
Monsod
said back then that, "The President will not succeed in emasculating NEDA
if NEDA will not allow it."
"While
there should be a healthy relationship between the president and the NEDA chief,
the NEDA chief has "the duty to tell her (the truth). It is not your role
to tell her what she wants to hear," she said.
REPUTATION
AFFECTED
Ancheta
and Cortez said they also felt the need to issue a statement since the NBN-ZTE
deal had affected the reputation of NEDA employees.
"For
months now, with blind allegiance, we have been complying with the gag order and
meekly bearing the pain of persecution and harassment from legislators, the media,
and the general public," the ONE said. "Despite knowing that information
is key to the public's understanding of this institution's functions and processes,
top management has chosen to keep silent and inactive."
"It
is time for NEDA to confront the blows to its integrity and credibility. NEDA
has been dragged through the filth of this controversy surrounding the NBN-ZTE
scandal, and its reputation severely sullied." | 
