Abalos willing to go on campus tour like Lozada
By Kristine L. Alave
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 17:56:00 03/02/2008
MANILA -- The lawyer of former Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr., the alleged broker of the corruption-tainted broadband network deal, said that if invited, his client would be willing to go on a campus tour, too, just like Senate witness Rodolfo Noel "Jun" Lozada Jr., to air his side on the controversy.
In an interview, Panelo criticized schools for inviting Lozada to speak to students without asking their side of the story too.
"You should listen to the other side, too," Panelo said.
He said Lozada has been trying to get sympathy support from students who did not know any better because they had yet to hear Abalos’ side.
"He's trying to use students to back up his lies. He's trying to drum up emotions and the students are lapping it up because they haven't heard the other side," Panelo said after Friday's Mass for Peace and Unity in Mandaluyong City.
Abalos, whom Lozada accused of demanding a $130-million kickback that bloated the cost of the NBN-ZTE Corp. deal to $329 million, was not at the Mass. Panelo said his client was playing golf at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club.
Lozada has been going around campuses in Metro Manila to answer questions about the project with Chinese firm ZTE Corp. and to raise awareness of efforts to fight graft and corruption in government.
Abalos and Panelo denied the technical consultant's assertion that he wanted a commission from the project, which was supposed to provide a digital telecommunication network for government agencies nationwide.
Lozada told the Senate that Abalos threatened his life when he opposed his wishes. Lozada was the third Senate witness to implicate Abalos in the scandal-tainted deal. The first two were businessman Jose de Venecia III and former socioeconomic planning secretary and now Commission on Higher Education chair Romulo Neri.
Recently, Dante Madriaga, who claimed to be a consultant of ZTE Corp., made a similar accusation, saying his boss in the project told him that the company paid advances to Abalos, the President and First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo in exchange for pushing the project.
Panelo said Madriaga's claims in the Senate last week were all "fiction." He said his client never met with Madriaga.
"This guy claims and speaks of corruption. Yet he's not known to the people in the know of the project," Panelo said.
Madriaga, he said, was just a "casual contractual employee" of Leo San Miguel, the company's consultant in Manila.
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