Press Release
September 6, 2007

ON THE SENATE PROBE ON THE BROADBAND CONTRACT

"I reiterate my call for the government to reconsider the P81-to-P90-billion* China loan agreement for a broadband project whose contract we have yet to see, and which obviously did not go through the usual government policy planning exercises. We have sufficient foreign reserves at our disposal and another foreign loan will add to the currency woes of our exporters and OFWs. I firmly believe that this loan agreement must be put on hold until the people are assured that the contract passes the highest standard of transparency, fairness, and necessity."

"The Senate Trade and Commerce Committee, which I chair, has been assigned as the secondary committee to the ZTE broadband probe. I will confer with the chairman of the blue ribbon committee, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, on how to set this inquiry in motion. The Senate inquiry is in line with Senate Minority Leader Nene Pimentel's Senate Resolution No. 127.

"We in the Senate welcome this probe as an opportunity for the Filipino people to finally see a copy of the reconstituted ZTE contract. It is unfortunate that information and documents such as the broadband contract that should have been readily available to the people would now have to surface in the course of a Senate investigation. I caution the executive branch that any refusal from the departments involved to provide the Senate with a copy of the contract will be met with outrage by our people."

"The Senate trade and commerce committee will specifically inquire into the China loans worth $1.8 billion, the approval of which is allegedly tied to the broadband project. This new loan adds about P920 to P1,026 in per capita indebtedness on top of the P45,000 that every citizen owes the country's creditors. We will also look into the commercial and technical aspects of this transaction particularly on whether such a project can be undertaken by local companies with greater efficiency and a much lower price."

News Latest News Feed