‘Surprise witness’ surprises Lacson
San Miguel told, ‘You have been lying all day’
By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr., Dona Pazzibugan, Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net, Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:27:00 03/12/2008
Online Source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquire...rprises-Lacson
MANILA, Philippines— (UPDATE 5) Sen. Panfilo Lacson was left red-faced after his much-ballyhooed surprise witness on Tuesday denied any "direct knowledge" of kickbacks in the $329-million broadband deal with China, specifically the $41 million in advances allegedly given to the “Greedy Group plus plus.”
Cable TV executive Leo San Miguel confirmed at the joint Senate hearing into the scuttled National Broadband Network (NBN) project that he was a consultant of China’s ZTE Corp., but he said his knowledge of the deal was limited to technical matters. He said he did not even coordinate with government agencies.
“You have been lying all day long up to now,” Lacson said toward the end of the 12-hour hearing. “I’m almost tempted to cite you in contempt myself. I’m trying to control myself because talking to you I know naglagay ka (you gave a bribe),” said Lacson.
Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II also said in frustration: “You were there ... but you see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil ... You were in the midst of it all, but all you say you know involved the technical side, that’s what you want us to swallow.”
“I am really sorry that you were not able to get the type of answers you wanted,” San Miguel retorted.
‘Na Meralco’
Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile laughed at San Miguel’s testimony.
“Ang alam ko na Meralco (What I know is that we’ve been given a bum steer),” Enrile told reporters.
The other senators expressed disappointment over “inconsistencies” in San Miguel’s testimony.
Sen. Francis Escudero, noting widespread speculation, asked Lacson: “Is Mr. San Miguel the ‘surprise witness’ who is supposed to know about the commissions or kickbacks because so far I am the one being surprised by the answers of Mr. San Miguel that he knows nothing about it?”
“He is the surprise witness,” admitted Lacson, who had kept his colleagues guessing for more than a week about his much-ballyhooed witness.
Inconsistent with human nature
“He admitted he met with Benjamin Abalos three to five times, and they exchanged casual hi’s and hello’s. That’s just inconsistent with human nature,” Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan said.
He said that “being evasive” and “refusing to be forthright” could be grounds to cite him in contempt.
Roxas agreed: “He said some things that were OK. He also said many things that were unbelievable. For instance, he mentioned meeting with Abalos six or eight times, but they didn’t talk about anything. He said he’s a technical guy, but he always joined the trips to China.”
Gang of four
Jose “Joey” de Venecia III, the first to testify about the ZTE scandal, said San Miguel was part of the “gang of four” behind the ZTE kickbacks.
He said San Miguel lied about his lack of knowledge of the kickbacks and Abalos’ $130 million commission.
De Venecia said “yes” when asked by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada if he thought San Miguel was lying.
He said that San Miguel knew about Abalos’ $130-million kickback because he was present at that meeting in Shenzen, China, where the former Commission on Elections chair mentioned it.
De Venecia also stood pat on his claim that San Miguel was present during a meeting at Wack Wack in December 2006 when the President’s husband reportedly told De Venecia to “back off” the NBN deal.
As a consultant, San Miguel said his commission was only half a percent of the project cost, or $1.65 million, far from the hefty kickbacks revealed by De Venecia, Rodolfo Lozada Jr. and Dante Madriaga.
“I don’t know whether the refund of my expenses is called advances,” San Miguel said under questioning by Lacson.
When Lacson reiterated he was interested in the advances on the commission, San Miguel said: “I am not aware ... whatsoever.”
San Miguel added: “I reiterate that to be proficient as engineer, I will not accept a job if it requires [things] not within my coverage [and] if I am not capable.”
Lacson shot back: “Here you are telling us that you have extensive dealings with ZTE and you don’t know anything about commissions?”
Unflinching
But San Miguel was unflinching and looked Lacson straight in the eye. “I’m not trying to be difficult, I’m just saying I don’t know. I don’t have any direct knowledge. Logic would state maybe there is but I am not denying nor confirming nor agreeing. I just don’t know.”
Lacson then asked San Miguel why ZTE’s proposal to link via the Internet all government offices nationwide ballooned exponentially.
San Miguel said that ZTE’s initial offer was $262-$265 million based on parameters set by the Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT) covering 42 base stations and 1,733 customer premises equipment (CPE) for barangays (villages).
The witness explained that the project cost rose to $329 million when the NBN project was transferred to the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) which had a different requirement than the CICT—the DoTC raised the number of CPEs to 25,000 to cover up to the sixth-class municipalities.
“The increase was based on a change of requirement. If I were to compare it, it used to be a two-bedroom house; it is now an eight-bedroom house,” San Miguel said.
‘Greedy Group’
San Miguel said it was he—not ZTE—who hired engineer Madriaga as a consultant.
Madriaga had previously testified that he had been told by his “boss” that $41 million in commissions was given to the so-called “Greedy Group plus plus” that he said included President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband, Abalos, businessman Ruben Reyes, retired police official Quirino de la Torre and San Miguel.
San Miguel testified that he met only with government officials in the course of his consultancy. He said the officials included former National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director General Romulo Neri.
San Miguel said he only hired Madriaga because of his past work in Arescom, one of two private companies that made an unsuccessful bid for the NBN project. The other company was Amsterdam Holdings Inc. (AHI), headed by De Venecia. San Miguel said “on hindsight,” he found Madriaga’s information “not too helpful.”
Compensation
San Miguel said he gave Madriaga P150,000 a month in compensation.
As a consultant, San Miguel said he was only compensated initially for out-of-pocket expenses that reached between P3 million and P4 million, and a success fee of 0.5 percent, or $1.6 million of the $329-million project cost.
He said there were no documents attesting to his consultancy services and his success fee.
San Miguel confirmed he met with Neri and his consultant, Lozada, but never the First Couple. He denied De Venecia’s claim that he was with the group during the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club incident when the First Gentleman reportedly told De Venecia to “back off” the NBN deal.
San Miguel said he met with Neri on several occasions when he gave presentations of ZTE’s proposal at the DoTC, NEDA and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
Lozada said that he met with San Miguel between five and seven times.
Lacson admitted talking to San Miguel four times before the hearing, but he preferred that San Miguel himself tell the Senate what was discussed there.
More surprised
“I got surprised by the surprise witness,” Lacson told reporters later. “I didn’t expect this. I am more surprised than disappointed.”
Lacson theorized that after their meeting, “somebody from Malacañang” might have gotten to San Miguel and convinced him to evade key questions on the deal at the hearing.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. admonished San Miguel for insisting on just being a technical guy blind to allegations of bribery.
“Please do not test our patience by insisting that your participation is only technical and we are also interested in your observations that you have exercised in your conversation with Mr. Abalos,” said Pimentel.
In his opening statement, Lacson cited several groups with links to the NBN project—the bidders (Arescom, AHI, and ZTE); the group of Neri, Lozada and De Venecia; the Greedy Group plus plus, and another group led by businessman Francis Chua.
But San Miguel said he was aware of only two groups involved in ZTE—AHI and ZTE.
Non-technical Filipino group
San Miguel said there was a “Filipino group” that handled ZTE’s non-technical matters—approval and facilitation—and this was led by Ruben Reyes.
“Mr. Ruben Reyes is the one who introduced me to ZTE through General De la Torre. He is the lead group as far as coordinating with the Philippine government,” San Miguel said. However, he disagreed with Lacson’s labeling of Reyes as the “fixer of the deal.”
San Miguel confirmed that ZTE had been talking to Abalos, but he said he had no idea of Abalos’ role in the ZTE deal although it appeared to him that Abalos and Reyes were “friends.”
Although he claimed he did not know about the kickbacks involved, San Miguel confirmed he had several meetings and took trips to China with Abalos to discuss the broadband project with ZTE officials.
He confirmed he dealt with Abalos, Reyes, De la Torre and Abalos’ chief of staff, Jimmy Paz, on the NBN-ZTE deal.
First Gentleman
But San Miguel denied having met with First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo.
San Miguel said Abalos and Reyes were in several meetings with ZTE officials held mostly at Wack Wack. But when asked by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada to describe Abalos’ participation in the deal, San Miguel was vague.
“I could only assume that he (Abalos) is part of the Philippine group but I really don’t know what kind of relationship they have… I know he’s been helping. On (what) specific sense, I don’t know,” San Miguel said.
China trips
San Miguel described De la Torre as a longtime business partner who provided him “logistical support.” He said De la Torre introduced him to Reyes, who in turn connected him to ZTE officials.
San Miguel said he made four trips to China for the ZTE deal on July 12, July 21, Oct. 24 and Dec. 26 in 2006. When Estrada confronted the witness with his travel records in 2006 and 2007, it turned out that San Miguel had traveled with Abalos to Hong Kong on April 20, 2007.
“I always travel alone, except that on Dec. 26 I saw Chairman Abalos and Ruben Reyes in the hotel where I was booked in,” he said, saying they were there to meet with ZTE officials.
$130-million commission
De Venecia said that during the Dec. 26, 2006, meeting in Shenzhen, China, Abalos introduced him to ZTE officials. De Venecia also claimed that during the meeting, Abalos angrily demanded a $130-million commission and dropped the President’s name.
San Miguel confirmed that the meeting took place with Abalos, Reyes, De la Torre, De Venecia and himself.
San Miguel said he heard “everything” that was said in the room except when De Venecia asked him and De la Torre to step out. San Miguel, however, did not confirm De Venecia’s claim that commissions were discussed at the meeting.
‘I don’t know’
But San Miguel said he expected there would be commissions in the ZTE deal.
“Commissions would be standard. If somebody helped them sell, there will be a commission. As to whether how much commissions were these, I don’t know,” he said.
Salvador Panelo, Abalos’ lawyer, called San Miguel a "dud" after he "surprised the senators with his ignorance and non-involvement of the alleged corruption in the NBN deal."
At the same time, Panelo said San Miguel contradicted previous testimonies of De Venecia, Lozada, and Madriaga -- all of whom accused his client of brokering for the contract.
"Leo San Miguel's testimony repudiates the allegations of Joey De Venecia, Jun Lozada, and Dante Madriaga that there were gargantuan commissions and/or bribery attempts resulting in the alleged overpricing of the national broadband project," said Panelo in a text message.
Lacson Bum Steered By Own "Surprise Witness"
Originally Posted by diem
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