Former House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. implicated President Gloria Arroyo on Monday in the National Broadband Network (NBN) deal with China's ZTE Corp and in the alleged bribery attempts to House members at the House justice committee hearing on the substance of the impeachment complaint.

Speaking in the House justice committee hearing on the impeachment complaint against Arroyo, De Venecia told the panel that president told him to approve the US$329-million NBN deal with ZTE Corp.

De Venecia also linked First Gentleman Jose Miguel 'Mike' Arroyo to the deal by saying that it was the presidential spouse who proposed that the contract should be done on a government-to-government contract instead of the build-operate-transfer scheme, which is more favorable to Filipino taxpayers since it will built at no cost to the government.

The former Speaker said the president told this to him in November 2006 when she invited him to play golf in Shenzhen, China. De Venecia said that he met former Commission on Elections chief Benjamin Abalos and First Gentlemam Mike Arroyo in Shenzhen.

De Venecia also showed a photo of Arroyo, the First Gentleman, Abalos and an official of the ZTE Corp.

De Venecia also said that the President was involved in the attempts to bribe some congressmen to support the “bogus” impeachment complaint filed by lawyer Roel Pulido.

Arroyo, De Venecia said, also asked him in a meeting in a music room in Malacanang to endorse the three-page Pulido impeachment complaint and transmit it to the House justice committee.

The former Speaker said he refused to follow Arroyo’s request. “I'm sorry I cannot do it. It's a bogus impeachment complaint,” he told the President.

De Venecia also said that his office even received P500,000. “This payola was her way to get legal protection for one year.”

“There was rampant large-scale bribery and corruption as if we, members of the house are commodities for sale,” the former speaker added.

“For refusing to endorse a sham impeachment against Arroyo and for supporting my son in his testimony [at the Senate probe of the ZTE deal], I was removed as House Speaker and as president of Lakas party, “De Venecia said.

The House committee on justice declared last Tuesday that the impeachment complaint was “sufficient in form” and the committee is now in the process of determining its “sufficiency in substance.”

The complaint cited the alleged involvement of President Arroyo in the P728-million fertilizer fund scam that was purportedly used to finance her 2004 presidential bid, the US$329 million NBN deal with ZTE Corp., the alleged bribery of House members, and the human rights violations under her administration..

Palace reaction

In response to De Venecia's disclosures, Presidential Deputy Spokesman Anthony Golez said "impeachment is a political process and JDV's statements were mere political sentiments which serves personal political interests."

"We recognize the congressman's sour graping and we can see that he is still hurting over his ouster as House Speaker by the vast majority of his colleagues for the loss of trust and confidence as their leader," Golez said.

Meanwhile, former President Joseph Estrada commended  "Cong. de Venecia for finding the courage to reveal what he knows about some of the anomalies of the Arroyo administration."

"May this be the beginning of the moral revolution that JDV spoke about. We hope that other Congressmen and other gov't officials are now inspired and will follow suit to also reveal what they know about the incumbent government's anomalies," Estrada said.

"We are also appalled by the audacity of the Administration to downplay the revelations of JDV as sourgraping. It is not the cause behind the exposes but the content of JDVs revelations that are important at this point in time," Estrada, who was impeached by the House in 2000, said. (abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak)

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