Junk the contract one and for all -- Bayan
September 18, 2007
The revelations of Joey de Venecia III implicating First Gentleman Mike Arroyo in the questionable National Broadband Network project leaves little doubt that the Arroyo administration at the highest levels was involved in forging the onerous contract.
This was the statement made by the umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan as it called on the public to protest shameless corruption and plunder in the Arroyo administration.
“The alleged involvement of the First Gentleman, Secretary Leandro Mendoza and the Chair of the Commission on Elections Benjamin Abalos shows Malacanang’s fingerprints all over the tainted contract. This is corruption on a grand scale taking place at the highest levels of government,” said Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr.
“With these revelations, pushing through with the contract would be politically costly for the Arroyo regime. With suspicions of corruption being affirmed, it would be political suicide,” Reyes added.
Bayan said that even if the young de Venecia stopped short of implicating President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the tainted contract, the public is acutely aware of the record of corruption of the Arroyo government.
“It taxes the imagination to say that the President had absolutely nothing to do with the tainted contract, especially if persons supposedly close to her are already being implicated. The fact that the Arroyo regime continues to justify the existence of the ZTE contract despite the protests, leads us to believe that the administration finds the deal very beneficial,” Reyes said.
“Whether or not President Arroyo was directly influencing the negotiations may not be the only issue here. At the end of the day, if Arroyo does not junk the deal, she becomes an accomplice to corruption,” Reyes said.
This was the statement made by the umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan as it called on the public to protest shameless corruption and plunder in the Arroyo administration.
“The alleged involvement of the First Gentleman, Secretary Leandro Mendoza and the Chair of the Commission on Elections Benjamin Abalos shows Malacanang’s fingerprints all over the tainted contract. This is corruption on a grand scale taking place at the highest levels of government,” said Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr.
“With these revelations, pushing through with the contract would be politically costly for the Arroyo regime. With suspicions of corruption being affirmed, it would be political suicide,” Reyes added.
Bayan said that even if the young de Venecia stopped short of implicating President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the tainted contract, the public is acutely aware of the record of corruption of the Arroyo government.
“It taxes the imagination to say that the President had absolutely nothing to do with the tainted contract, especially if persons supposedly close to her are already being implicated. The fact that the Arroyo regime continues to justify the existence of the ZTE contract despite the protests, leads us to believe that the administration finds the deal very beneficial,” Reyes said.
“Whether or not President Arroyo was directly influencing the negotiations may not be the only issue here. At the end of the day, if Arroyo does not junk the deal, she becomes an accomplice to corruption,” Reyes said.
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