Asa naman diay si Lozada anf Joey ani? is Mr. Mañalac naka graduate sad nis Ping Academy?
Expect a saga of Jedi masters degree graduates at the senate in your TV soon
Ex-PNOC head new NBN witness
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquire...ew-NBN-witness
A
former president of the state-owned Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) is
the “surprise” witness who will testify on the purported million-dollar kickbacks in the $329-million National Broadband Network deal with Chinese firm ZTE Corp., according to highly placed sources.
Eduardo Mañalac, who is said to have deep connections in China, is to testify at the Senate on Tuesday on how at least $41 million in alleged under-the-table commissions were funneled from the Chinese firm to the so-called “Greedy Group plus plus” that was packaging the NBN-ZTE deal, said the sources who asked not to be named for security reasons.
As PNOC president at the time,
Mañalac was the signatory on behalf of the Philippine government in the now controversial Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU)
in the disputed Spratly Islands.
But his value as a witness in the now scuttled NBN-ZTE deal, according to the sources, is based on his knowledge of how ZTE officials purportedly paid off the “Greedy Group” to allow China’s second-biggest telecommunications firm to bag the NBN project.
The sources said Sen. Panfilo
Lacson would present the surprise witness at the resumption on Tuesday of the Senate’s inquiry into the NBN-ZTE deal.
Lacson could not be reached for comment.
Go-between
The sources said
Mañalac had an extensive network and deep connections in the Chinese government and was a trusted go-between for Chinese projects in the Philippines.
He is “
a familiar face in China,” the sources said.
The projects that came his way as a go-between included the NBN-ZTE deal that, according to three witnesses who had earlier testified at the Senate, was put together for the purpose of generating at least $70 million in kickbacks for each of the members of the “Greedy Group.”
This group, according to witness Dante Madriaga, included President Macapagal-Arroyo, her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo, former Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr., IT expert Leo San Miguel, former Chief Supt. Quirino “Torch” de la Torre and businessman Ruben Reyes.
The Senate had sent out subpoenas for San Miguel, De la Torre and Reyes, but they could not be found. San Miguel’s son received the subpoena last Thursday.
A subpoena had also been sent out for
Jimmy Paz, Abalos’ former chief of staff at the Comelec
who was supposedly present at some of the secret meetings on the NBN-ZTE deal. He also could not be found.
Removal from PNOC
Before his appointment as PNOC president in August 2004 replacing retired general Thelmo Cunanan, Mañalac worked in some of China’s state firms.
He was removed from his PNOC post in November 2006 for reasons still unclear.
But
his removal came amid controversy over his approval of a deal that allowed the Bermuda-based oil firm Mitra Energy Ltd. to tap oil reserves in the Camago-Malampaya oil field off Palawan.
Shortly after Mañalac was sacked, Ms
Arroyo issued an executive order that virtually scuttled the Camago-Malampaya deal, which came in the middle of the implementation of the JMSU.
Mañalac returned to China to resume working there after his removal from the PNOC, said a source who knew him briefly.
The sources said
Mañalac was tapped to head the PNOC
because of his deep connections in the Chinese bureaucracy that were to prove highly valuable in the signing of the original RP-China agreement on a seismic study in the Spratlys that was later amended to
include Vietnam.
According to the sources, Mañalac also developed close ties with the family of then Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. when his own family joined De Venecia’s wife Gina in Inang Nawalan ng Anak (INA), a group that helps women cope with the loss of their children to tragedy or violent crime.
Like the De Venecias, the Mañalacs have suffered the loss of a child.
Filling in the blanks
Mañalac’s testimony at the Senate is
expected to fill in the blanks in the earlier testimonies of Madriaga, engineer Rodolfo
Lozada Jr. and businessman Jose “
Joey” de Venecia III, the sources said.
While the previous three witnesses had corroborated one another’s testimony on how the “Greedy Group” had packaged the NBN-ZTE deal purportedly to accommodate the kickbacks, no witness has come out to reveal knowledge of payoffs from ZTE.
No one has testified on Mañalac’s presence at any of the backdoor meetings held mostly in the Philippines and at least twice in China, but the sources said his knowledge of how the payoffs were prepared and delivered by ZTE could complete the picture.
The most
detailed testimony yet on the alleged payoffs was made by Madriaga, who said he was under contract from ZTE as a consultant on the NBN project.
Madriaga testified that advance kickbacks amounting to at least $46 million were delivered by ZTE to the “Greedy Group” four times in the course of the under-the-table negotiations.
When, how much
This was how Madriaga recounted the purported advance payoffs in a blog that he later repeated in his Senate testimony:
The
first payoff of $1 million was made in
China in August 2006, when the “Greedy Group” was just starting to put the NBN-ZTE deal together.
It was given
to Ruben Reyes, the purported conduit of the illegal funds.
The
second payoff of $5 million was made by ZTE
in December 2006, again in China, after talks
failed to convince De Venecia III, who
was pushing his own broadband network proposal, to abandon his project.
The money was again received by Reyes.
On Feb. 12, 2007, Ms Arroyo issued an executive order moving the Telephone Office, which would handle the NBN project, to the jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation and Communications.
In March 2007, the “Greedy Group” obtained clearance from ZTE officials at a meeting
in Wack Wack, Mandaluyong City, for a
third payoff of $10 million. Again, the conduit of the
funds was Reyes.
An agreement to release the
fourth advance payoff was reached by ZTE officials and the “Greedy Group” at the
Makati Shangri-La hotel in April 2007, about a month before the May elections.
But although ZTE
agreed to advance $30 million, ZTE executive Fan Yang said
the money would be released on one
condition—that Ms Arroyo be present at the signing of the NBN-ZTE supply contract.
The “Greedy Group” agreed and the
$30 million was given to Reyes.
Arroyo in China
On April 21, 2007, as her husband was recuperating from high-risk heart surgery at the St. Luke’s Medical Center, Ms Arroyo flew to China to attend the Boao Forum.
On her way back to Manila hours later, she witnessed the
signing of the NBN-ZTE deal at the
VIP room of the Haikou Meilan International Airport in Hainan between Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro
Mendoza and Yu
Yong, ZTE Corp. vice president and ZTE International president.
Prior to the signing, Ms Arroyo had a one-on-one meeting with ZTE chair Hou Weigui at the Haikou Meilan airport.
Madriaga said in his testimony that the First Couple were the biggest recipients of the kickbacks.
Corroborative but hearsay
But Palace officials and those involved in the NBN-ZTE deal insist that while the
testimonies of
Madriaga,
Lozada and
De Venecia III jibed, these
were hearsay unsupported by hard evidence.
Mañalac’s testimony is expected to connect the releasing and receiving ends of the purported payoffs, according to the sources.
Re: @Whistleblowers
Originally Posted by radiostar
hihihi...
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