GOTCHA, Published in the Philippine Star, Monday, March 31, 2008
In the course of researching the NBN-ZTE scam, I kept stumbling upon two bothersome items:
The first concerns the cornering by a well connected but little-known telco of the 20-MHz spectrum in the 2.2-GHz radio frequency. Apparently just one phone call from a very influential person in the Arroyo admin sent the National Telecoms Commission granting the frequency — for free. No public auction, no public offering, and no public hearing.
The 2.2-GHz freq is most vital nowadays for handlers of WiMAX and other new telecom technologies. The 20-MHz spectrum award would be worth $4-$5 million in the telco’s assets, or if it flips and sells the rights to another operator. But the awardee did not even pay the annual Spectrum User’s Fee, a mere P5 per KHz, or P5,000 per MHz.
The deal was done last year after the firing of reformist NTC chair Ronald Solis in 2006. For resisting coercion by the frequency-grabbing admin VIP, Solis was replaced first by a retired general, and then the new Malacañang choice.
Not only with Malacañang was the VIP influential. In 2004 Congress granted his telco a franchise “to construct, install, establish, operate and maintain a telecommunications system throughout” the land. The franchise is wide-ranging, from wire to wireless telecoms, landlines, paging, fiber optics, multi-channel multipoint distribution systems, local multipoint distribution systems, satellite transmit-and-receive systems, and value-added services. Yet a Google-search of the telco’s name will yield no address, company profile, or list of incorporators, directors and officers. Nothing, except the text of the republic act granting the franchise. The kinsmen powers behind the new Speaker are also the protectors of the telco and the admin biggie.
Equally bothersome are recurring accounts by different sources that Fan Yang, ZTE international finance officer, held a Philippine passport. With it the Chinese national could breeze through RP customs, immigration and airport authorities.
The Filipino brokers of the NBN-ZTE deal gave Fan the official travel document. This same “Greedy Group ++” also has the power to illegally wiretap competitors and detractors. It is presently circulating a 12-tract CD of eavesdropped chats of Joey de Venecia and Jun Lozada.
I’ll bet the concerned state agencies will do nothing about Fan’s unauthorized passport. There’s a grand coverup of all crimes that attended the NBN-ZTE deal. That, although Gloria Arroyo has admitted to learning about fraud on the eve of witnessing the signing. Also, despite the testimony of Sec. Romy Neri that he was offered a P200-million bribe to approve the deal.
And because of the Supreme Court decision on executive privilege, it’s unlikely that Congress will get to the bottom of the telco frequency scam either. The Tribunal has ruled that all conversations involving the President shall be deemed secret. Any executive official will thus just quote the Court to avoid answering questions by inquisitive senators or congressmen.
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Well done by the 2007 Bar passers, two of whom I know: Juris Echiverri, son of Caloocan City Mayor Rico Echiverri, and Mary Ann Reyes of The STAR. Notably the Villaraza Cruz Marcelo Angangco Law Firm maintained its 100-percent passing rate of law grad-recruits: 7th placer Sheryl Ann D. Tizon and 11 other new lawyers.
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I’m sure many readers share this idea from Mark Mallari of
“Thank you for your efforts and sacrifices exposing misdeeds in government, from plunder in NBN-ZTE to treason in the Spratlys. In light of what’s happening, there should be legislation to guarantee transparency in all government dealings. Barack Obama points the way with his Google for Government proposal. That is, all government transactions, contracts, bids, gifts to officials, pork barrel, etc. (except those with true national security implications) be posted on a special website within a specified number of days. Google for Government would allow the media and ordinary citizens to look over the shoulders of public servants and make sure the public treasury is spent well. We also incredibly still don’t have a Freedom of Information Act. We should all be allowed access to complete and unadulterated government files upon request. A lot of the problems we are facing today are because public officials think they are protected from public scrutiny by a cloak of secrecy. But not if they know there’s a night light left on.”
That e-mail was sent days before the fateful Supreme Court ruling that a President’s executive privilege is weightier than the public’s right to know. Can Mark’s suggestions prosper, given that the Tribunal will strike them down as high-handed because infringing on the Executive’s right to secrecy?
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