Beijing too must probe ZTE scam

GOTCHA By Jarius Bondoc, The Philippine Star, Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Bring your case to the proper forums, critics of the ZTE deal are told. One such forum is Congress. Since Rep. Carlos Padilla has linked Comelec chief Ben Abalos to the Chinese firm’s fishy contract, apt committees must now investigate, for legislation or prosecution. But from indications, there won’t be a deep probe. Malacañang has shushed Cabinet men who know about the needless, hurried, overpriced national broadband project. All executive branch officers who will be summoned by Congress will have to get presidential clearance to talk. And Abalos, who can sway any politico’s life, has dared congressmen if they really want to grill him.

Stumped, should the critics turn elsewhere, say, Beijing?

It’s timely to do so. Chinese authorities are cracking down hard on government and corporate corruption. The cleanup is part of China’s new branding. Top leaders are aiming for a fresh image that “Made in China” equals high quality. The 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 Shanghai World Expo will be the main showcases. So sleaze by Communist Party bigwigs and government bureaucrats, as by tycoons, is dealt with severely.

In April the Shanghai Party boss in charge of housing was detained for taking part in shady property deals. Days later the chief of Beijing’s university and techno-park district was detained on similar charges. This month last year no less than the powerful Shanghai Party chief was jailed for misusing pension funds. Harshest of all was the execution for bribery of China’s pharmaceutical licensing head. The Party has elevated the Central Disciplinary Inspection Commission to the charge of the Politburo’s sixth highest man. Government also formed in February a Corruption Prevention Bureau.

The crackdown has moved into state and private enterprises. The chairman of state-owned Sinopec, Asia’s largest oil and gas refiner, was sacked in June for corruption. So was the president of the State Grid, only a week before China’s power producer was to bid for management of RP’s Transmission Company. The 2004 death of dozens of infants from bogus milk formula; the discovery of toxic toothpaste, toys and seafood; and the millions of complaints about collapsing garden chairs, faulty space heaters and lethal necklaces has prompted authorities to impose stricter product tests and standards. Businesses are now required to register for regulation. International accounting rules are being adopted. Purchasing managers have been put under stern rules on accepting gifts.

The image retooling is far-reaching. Stung by worldwide censure for dirty factories and polluted waterways, Beijing leaders also have set new environment standards along with incentives for green technology. And the Party has begun to appoint respected non-members to head ministries like health and science.

In Manila, where dozens of Chinese firms operate and thousands of nationals work, the embassy enforces Beijing’s initiatives. Proof: its swift action on complaints about defective decorative lighting and formalin in candies. Surely, Beijing’s reps in the Philippines would not want a public outrage against ZTE Corp.’s scandalous dealings to disrupt China’s new branding.

Chinese executives, along with their Filipino partners, can complain to the embassy — or directly to Beijing — about ZTE’s apparent breaches of laws. (Abalos somehow admitted to one violation when he said ZTE paid for all expenses in at least four trips to Shenzhen last year.) Bringing the matter to top Chinese officials might stop the $330-million (P16-billion) telecom purchase from pushing through. It would save Filipinos from having to pay the amount for a project that experts said is unnecessary and competitive bids show is too much.

Two Chinese high officials are in town: Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan and Vice Chairman Jiang Zhenghua of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. They can be approached.

Meanwhile, stockholders of the giant telecom maker can question their managers about events in Manila. The troubles seem to mimic similar deals in Mexico City, Burma, Indonesia and Liberia. Sleaze is not a good way to run a company that operates in over a hundred countries. Scandal must be avoided if listed in the Hong Kong and Shenzhen stock exchanges.

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The opening of an NCLEX test center in Makati has two big benefits. Nurses no longer have to spend P50,000-P100,000 to travel to Hong Kong or Seoul to take the US licensure exam. More than the usual 10,000 Filipinos a year will be able to take it and get a chance to work in America.

What’s left to pay is the drive, flight or sail to the Trident Tower on 312 Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue, and the $350 exam fee. It’s convenient since tests are conducted Monday to Friday, by appointment.

Dante Ang asks, as bringer of the center to RP, that examinees refrain from memorizing questions and tipping off others. The US National Council of State Boards of Nursing might up and leave like it did from cities where copyright infringement was rampant.

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E-mail: jariusbondoc@workmail.com

Anong mangyayari sa ZTE scandal?

SAPOL Ni Jarius Bondoc, Pilipino Star Ngayon, Tuesday, September 4, 2007

MARAMI ang nagtatanong sa akin: Ano na ang mangya­yari sa usaping ZTE — ngayong matapang na isi­nang­kot ni Rep. Carlos Padilla si Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos sa maruming kontrata, at umamin ang huli na hindi bababa sa apat na beses siyang nakipag-golf sa ZTE Corp. executives sa Shenzhen nitong nakara­ang taon? Ano ang kabuntot ng pagbunyag ni Finance Sec. Gary Teves na si Abalos nga ang naglapit sa kanila nina Transport-Communications Sec. Leandro Mendoza sa ZTE execs para pag-usapan ang national broadband network.

Siyempre, dapat magkaroon ng malalim at malinaw na inquiry ang House of Representatives. Arukin nila kung ano’ng mga batas ang dapat pasakan o ipasa para hindi na maulit ang pagyurak sa mga mahuhusay na kakom­petensiya na hindi nanunuhol, o ang pakikialam ng isang Comelec official sa trabaho ng ehekutibo, o ang pag-abuso ng executive agreements. Ika nga ni Rep. Pros­pero Nograles, kung may ginawang mali si Abalos, dapat siya i-impeach ng House at litisin ng Senate. Hinding-hindi dapat pagbayarin ang mamamayan nang $330 milyon (P16 bilyon) para sa isang kontratang itinatago sa kanila ng gobyerno. Hinding-hindi dapat umutang ang gobyerno nang walang paliwanag sa madla, tapos otoma­tikong babayaran ang taunang hulog miski pumalpak ang proyekto.

Ipagdasal nating umandar ding mabilis ang mga kaso sa korte. Kasi, hinabla ni Padilla ng graft sina Mendoza at DOTC Asecs. Elmer Soneja at Lorenzo Formoso at tat­long ZTE execs sa paglabag sa apat na batas: Build-Operate-Transfer Law, Procurement Reform Act, Tele­coms Policy Act, at Omnibus Election Code. Si Iloilo vice governor Rolex Suplico naman, pinahihinto sa Korte Suprema ang national broadband network contract ng ZTE hangga’t hindi ito naibubunyag na nirerepaso ng mga eksperto.

’Yung iba pang opisyales na may alam sa anomalya, sana maglakas-loob na ibunyag ang detalyes para mapa­rusahan ang mga may pakana. Tiyak natatakot sila sa maaaring sapiting pananakit at panggigipit. Pero maniwala sila, pinapanigan ng Diyos ang lumalaban para sa Katotohanan.

What next in ZTE’s ‘truth in trickles’?

GOTCHA By Jarius Bondoc, The Philippine Star, Monday, September 3, 2007

What happens to the ZTE issue —now that Rep. Carlos Padilla bravely has linked Comelec head Ben Abalos to the deal, and Abalos as boldly has admitted junketing four times to China on the firm’s expense? What next, after Finance Sec. Gary Teves confirmed Abalos’s making him discuss with ZTE Corp. execs the national broadband project, but then recanted the next day?

Going by Congress rules, three committees will inquire into the $330-million (P16-billion) deal. Those on information-communication technology and on electoral reform will study if new laws are needed. That on good government might urge legal action against the dealmakers. Depending on emerging evidence, others may join later. Abalos could even be impeached, according to Reps. Prospero Nograles and Ronaldo Zamora.

A frank probe could show overpricing. Two ZTE competitors decry the Department of Transport and Communications’ ignoring their much lower bids. That can be ascertained if the House orders the DOTC to reveal once and for all its findings on all the bids instead of hiding them. The propriety of the Comelec chief’s performing of executive functions, in entertaining ZTE Corp. as foreign investor, can be clarified. The admission of accepting all-expense-paid travels — a violation of the Code of Conduct for Public Officials — could be basis for impeachment.

Congress could expand its probe into related matters. It can study if the executive branch can keep on invoking “executive agreement” to avoid public biddings. Too, if a done deal with a foreign firm, followed only later by a government-to-government loan, can pass as “executive agreement” at all. Another item for study is what should take priority: a negotiated deal covered by executive confidentiality, or open bids under the Build-Operate-Transfer Law.

Needing both legislation and prosecution is the government’s breach of the Constitution’s transparency rule. There’s need to uphold public right to information. For months competitors asked the DOTC why the Chinese firm suddenly broke ahead of line in spite of their earlier submissions. They got no reply. Even the US embassy warned against undue haste and urged open bidding. Ignored. Six business groups called for the use of the P16 billion for more pressing needs like rural classrooms, clinics and wells. A seventh business group asked for at least a review. Silence. Mendoza went ahead and awarded the contract, then two months later said it was stolen and so cannot be shown. To this day the DOTC refuses to make public the broadband details, yet expects the people to pay for it. Law and litigation can spell out if government can invoke secrecy in contracting.

Padilla would need to call in Teves to testify. Begging details are the now supposedly separate meetings Teves had with ZTE execs — called by Abalos and Mendoza. Padilla also can subpoena the competitors to tell their stories. But he must himself expound on the item in his exposé — on ZTE’s Filipino rival being “asked to withdraw” its proposal. Indeed, who did the asking?

All this must be squeezed out, even if the truth in this ZTE story, as The STAR editorial last Saturday lamented, comes only in trickles. Slow is better than no truth at all, which is what would happen if Malacañang forbids executive officials from testifying.

* * *

Expect in the meantime defenders of the ZTE deal to obfuscate the issue. One fabrication is that Padilla and I connived for his explosive Wednesday speech. Truth is, until I interviewed him Saturday on my radio show (Sapol, DWIZ 882-AM), we hadn’t talked in years.

Ascribing all sorts of motives for my writings, pseudonymous hate-mailers play God in reading my heart. Among their lies is that I work for the CIA that supposedly backs ZTE’s American rival, or a distant in-law who co-owns the Filipino competitor, and even for the three giant telcos. All this follows the initial media harassment in attempting to link me to the alleged document theft (assuming there really was a theft). Newspaper ads by the moneyed ZTE against me are but the beginning of another round of attacks. Kickbackers of $200 million (P10 billion) think they can even get away with murder.

* * *

Expect more twists too. Already, two officials have been removed due to the ZTE exposés, and a graft investigator was sacked. Sources and investigative reporters have been bugged or stalked, or e-mails cloned. They pay the price for tenacity in bringing out the truth.

Let’s hope others who know about this scam also would speak up, for the sake of our abused country. It will be hard; the perpetrators may harm them. But they must tough it out. So to them I share again this Prayer for Courage:

“Dear God, give me courage, for perhaps I lack it more than anything else. I need courage before men against their threats and their seductions. I need courage to bear unkindness, mockery, contradiction; I need courage to fight against the devil, against terrors, troubles, temptations, attractions, darkness and false lights; against tears, depression and, above all, fear. I need Thy help, dear God. Strengthen me with Thy love and Thy grace. Console me with Thy blessed presence and grant me the courage to persevere until I am with Thee forever in heaven. Amen.” It always works.

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E-mail: jariusbondoc@workmail.com

Maaring madiin lalo sa sariling pahayag

SAPOL Ni Jarius Bondoc, Pilipino Star Ngayon, Monday, September 3, 2007

BIGLANG uminit ang ZTE issue nang idawit ni Rep. Carlos Padilla si Comelec chairman Ben Abalos. Nauna na niyang hinabla si DOTC Sec. Leandro Mendoza nang graft and corruption sa pagpirma sa $330-milyong (P16-bilyong) kontrata. Kaya’t paborito silang tatlo ma-interview sa radio talk shows. Kontra-pelo ang mga salita nila. Maaring gamitin ni Padilla ang mga sinabi ng dalawa para lalong idiin sa anomalya.

Halimbawa ang usapin ng pag-utang sa China Eximbank ng $330 milyon para pondohan ang pagbili sa ZTE Corp. ng exclusive government broadband network. Napaulat na nagkapirmahan na ng pautang nu’ng maka­lawang Sabado. Ani Mendoza sa panayam ni Ted Failon sa DZMM, nilalakad na nila ang approval ng Monetary Board ng utang. “‘Yun na nga ba ang sinasabi ko,” banat naman ni Padilla nang siya na ang ka-phone patch. “Sabi sa batas kailangan aprubado muna ng Board ang pag-utang bago pa man pirmahan ang loan agreement.”

Dagdag pa ni Mendoza na pinili nila ang ZTE dahil hindi kaya ng dalawang kakompitensiya na pinansiyahan ang proyekto. “‘Yan na nga rin ang sinasabi ko,” ulit ni Padilla. “Ilabas nila lahat ng papeles, para makita ng mga eksperto kung meron nga bang kakayahan o wala ang mga nag-aalok ng broadband network.”

Si Abalos naman ay in-interview ni Arnold Clavio at Ali Sotto sa DZBB. Umamin ang Comelec chief na di-bababa sa tatlong beses siya pumunta sa Shenzhen kamakailan para makipag-golf sa ZRE execs. Pinag-usapan daw nila ang pag-invest para umunlad ang Mindanao’ “krimen ba ‘yun?” Hindi nga impeachable offense maki-golf, sagot ni Padilla, pero bakit nakikipag-usap pa si Abalos sa ZTE gayong kontrobersiyal na ito at nasa gitna na ng election period.

Inamin ni Abalos na bawal mag-award ang gobyerno ng kontrata kung election period, tulad ng Apr. 21 para sa ZTE. Pero dagdag niya agad na hindi naman kontrata kundi memorandum of agreement ang pinirmahan sa Boao, China. Pero bakit giit ni Mendoza, kontrata raw?