Bottom-line of Lozada testimony is rotten procurement

Senator Mar Roxas said the testimony of Engr. Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada has shed more light into the botched deal of the government with ZTE Corp. of China for a National Broadband Network (NBN), and has stressed the need to reform the rotten procurement system of the government.

“Lalong lumalalalim at lumalawak ang larawan na pinapakita ni Engr. Jun Lozada tungkol sa kabulukan sa sistema ng procurement ng ating pamahalaan,” he said.

“Iyan naman ang dapat i-focus ng Senado, kung papaano natin aayusin ang procurement ng ating bansa, para ang pera natin ay hindi naman masayang. Inuutang natin ito, kinokolekta natin sa buwis ang pambayad nito, kaya dapat namang mapunta ito sa tama na mga proyekto na priority natin,” he stressed.

Roxas pointed out that after Lozada’s testimony, it is imperative now for the Senate to get the testimony of former National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director General Romulo Neri “to say exactly what he knows, in the interest of the truth and public interest.” Neri has since evaded the Senate probe by invoking executive privilege.

“It’s now up to Sec. Neri to refute or deny these allegations. What’s important here is that Sec. Neri has sought refuge from the Courts, and this is why we in the Senate are very aggressively pursuing this case, for the Supreme order Sec. Neri to come here and to say exactly what he knows,” he said.

“Romy, ikaw ang nakakaalam nito, you can set the nation free by telling us what you know about this. Come, and do your job here,” he added.

The Liberal Party President pointed out that the crux of the NBN controversy is how the government’s policy in pursuing the NBN project changed overnight—from doing it through a build-operate-transfer (BOT) arrangement with the private sector; to borrowing $330 million to finance it—and the crucial role that NEDA played in this case. Roxas and fellow Liberal Sen. Benigno Aquino III filed a case with the high court to reveal the NEDA-Investment Coordinating Committee (ICC) documents on the NBN deal, which could shed light on this issue.

“I’m more interested in finding out how did the NEDA-ICC, for example, change its stance? Originally, it was meant to have been ‘no loan, no government guarantee, private sector, and not government as principal customer.’ And out of the blue, overnight, naging ‘loan, government project, may government guarantee, and government would be the principal customer.’ Papaano nangyari iyan?” he said.