JDV III won't attend NBN deal hearing

Businessman Jose "Joey" de Venecia III, son of Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., said Wednesday that he will not attend a Senate inquiry on the national broadband network controversy after another witness in the NBN deal failed to show up. In a letter to the Senate, de Venecia said he does not need to go to the Senate after Rodolfo Lozada, chief executive officer of the government-run Philippine Forest Corp., turned down the Senate's invitation to attend the inquiry. "I understand that Mr. Rodolfo Lozada, the next significant witness to this probe, has not accepted the Senate investigation, subpoena and apparently has left the country this morning. As discussed with you my presence was based on my understanding that Mr. Rodolfo Lozada would testify at today’s committee hearing. Because of his absence I believe that it is not anymore necessary for me to appear this morning," de Venecia said. De Venecia, the original whisteblower in the NBN deal, said he hoped for closure in the controversy with the passage of a joint committee report from Senate committees investigating the deal. "I continue to believe that full implementation of existing anti-graft laws in the country be exercised and the creation of a new law or program be enacted for the requisite review by both the legislative and executive branches of all foreign based finance projects in order to prevent corruption in the country," he said. The letter was dated January 30, 2008 and addressed to Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, chairman of the Accountability of Public Officers and Investigation also called as the Blue-Ribbon Committee.De Venecia earlier accused First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo and former elections chief Benjamin Abalos Sr. of brokering the $329-million NBN deal entered into by the government with China's ZTE Corp. President Arroyo later scrapped the broadband contract because of bribery allegations against officials involved in the deal.De Venecia arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Tuesday on board a Cathay Pacific flight from the United States. He said he returned to Manila to attend the Senate probe on the multi-million dollar broadband deal.De Venecia added that he returned to quell rumors that his father, Speaker Jose de Venecia III, is preventing him from testifying again at the Senate.The younger de Venecia quietly left the country last year after linking Mrs. Arroyo's husband in the aborted NBN deal.He left the country on board Japan Airlines flight JL746 bound for Narita purportedly to escape an "assassination plot."

Reference: www.abs-cbnnews.com