GLORIA CANCELLED ZTE CONTRACT TO PUT
CLOSURE TO SENATE PROBE -- PIMENTEL

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's decision to cancel the government's broadband contract with China's ZTE Corporation is a correct step which may have stemmed from her realization that it is tainted with corruption and her intention to persuade the Senate to end the probe into the scandalous deal.

"Gloria's abrogation of the ZTE contract is good. But it is not good enough. In fact, it raises more questions than it answers," Pimentel said in a privilege speech.

"There is no closure on questionable deals until the questions are answered and the truth is out."

The minority leader said several implications may be deduced from the cancellation order made by the President, such as the following:

One, the President may have finally realized that the deal is shot through with corruption that it cannot be justified even if St. Peter would suddenly materialize to push for it on the floor of the Senate.

Two, the President may have wanted to deflect the continuing public dissatisfaction of her overall incompetent handling of the presidential office.

Three, the President may have wanted to put a closure to the investigation that the Senate is now conducting to prevent the miasma of the mess from engulfing other high government officials aside from resigned Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos.

Despite the scuttling of the $329 broadband contract, Pimentel said the blue ribbon committee, committee on trade and commerce and committee on constitutional amendments and revision of laws should pursue their mandate to dig deeper into the issue of the ZTE contract until it is satisfactorily completed.

"Otherwise, we will be remiss in the discharge of our oversight functions as senators," he said.

Pimentel decried that the ZTE scandal is dominating the Philippines, lowering President Arroyo's already dismal approval ratings and sparking coup rumors.

Quoting William Pesek of Bloomberg News, Pimentel said "All this is a bit too familiar; Arroyo herself became president after Joseph Estrada was ousted from the presidency in 2001 amid popular demonstrations backed by the military."

Pimentel noted that the President's message these days is of revival and fiscal sobriety. With the economy growing at 7.5 percent and the budget registering a surplus for the third consecutive month in August, said Mrs. Arroyo argues that things are looking up in her nation of 91 million people.

He said that in Pesek's view, the President's economic revival story is not getting across partly because scandals are drowning her out. Yet, he said the bigger reason is a justified sense of skepticism that even if the economy is improving, most Filipinos will not enjoy it.

"Corruption is a key reason why, and a lack of progress in combating it remains a major blight on Asia's restructuring efforts following the 1997 financial crisis," Pimentel said.

Pimentel said the survey of Transparency International showing that the country was 117th in the corruption perception index. The index is ranked according to the most clean country going down to the most corrupt.

He said that the Philippines inched lower to 121st and to 131st in 2007. This puts the Philippines in the same league as Burundi, Honduras and Yemen.

In this connection, he cited Pesek of Bloomberg News: "It's sober reading and sparks volumes about why many Filipinos and Asians in general are not benefiting much from the region's boom."