Former Pres GMA Had a First Hand in the Approval of NBN-ZTE Deal

Based on the court records and testimony of a journalist, former President Gloria Arroyo had influenced former NEDA Director Romulo Neri to approved the NBN-ZTE deal.

“PGMA was pushing it. Binraso ako ni Presidente (I was forced by the President)." Neri allegedly told his journalist friend.

Arroyo forced Neri to okay NBN-ZTE deal, court told

Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had forced her Planning secretary, Romulo Neri, to approve the alleged anomaly-ridden proposal of Chinese firm ZTE Corp. in the government's national broadband network project in 2007, a newspaper columnist said Thursday.

Jarius Bondoc told the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division in a hearing that Neri himself told him this in a phone conversation on April 21, 2007, the day before the $329-million NBN deal was signed with ZTE Corp.

The trial was for the graft case slapped against former Commission on Election (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos, who allegedly tried to bribe Neri to approve the deal.

Under direct examination by Prosecutor Jacinto dela Cruz Jr., Bondoc said Neri called him in the morning of April 20, 2007 and gave him four names of people who were allegedly behind the overpricing of the NBN project.

“Secretary Neri mentioned a certain Ricky Razon, Abalos and either GMA (Arroyo’s initials) or (then First Gentleman Jose Miguel) Mike Arroyo. He said, ‘You find out for yourself. I can’t tell you. I won’t tell you’," said Bondoc, who claimed to have known Neri since the Cory Aquino administration.

more from http://www.gmanews.tv/story/204592/arroyo-forced-neri-to-okay-nbn-zte-deal-court-told

___________

Newsman quotes Neri: Arroyo pressured me on NBN deal

MANILA, Philippines—“I was pressured by the President,” a newspaper columnist Thursday said quoting Romulo Neri who was tasked with evaluating the National Broadband Network project when he headed the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

Neri allegedly told Star columnist Jarius Bondoc that former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband were involved in pushing for the $329-million NBN deal with a Chinese firm.

Bondoc recounted his discussions of the deal with Neri, whom he identified as his “anonymous source” in the series of columns on the NBN-ZTE deal in early 2007.

The columnist said Neri called him up on the morning of April 20, 2007, to complain about the deal, which was to be signed in China the next day.

Bondoc said Neri, who believed that the deal was anomalous, was “agitated” during their conversation.

more from http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20101029-300380/Newsman-quotes-Neri-Arroyo-pressured-me-on-NBN-deal