Press Release
November 19, 2007

Interview with Senator Alan Peter Cayetano

Q: Does Neri confirm that he will go tomorrow?

ASC: Not yet right now I asked them to called his office again, but if he doesn't come tomorrow he'll be courting a contempt rule...

Q: Sir, si Joey, tapos na talaga kau kay Joey?

ASC: actually we don't really have much more questions and medyo may mis communication or hindi clear sa amin ngayon whether his saying that wala na siyang sasabihin but his willing to cooperate dahil informally iyon ang ipinarating or if he is saying hindi na sya mag-aattend period. But for tomorrow ang specific request ni Senator Pimentel is more of Mr. Jarius Bondoc then Mr. De Venecia but if anyone in the committee request Mr. De Venecia we will not hesitate to ask him to come. And I've the committee to follow-up. He submitted na nya yung power point nya but hardcopy wala pa yung soft.

Q: Sir yung NEDA documents san na napunta?

ASC: Yung Neda Documents they still have not given us the specific set that we've asked for. And again Neda is also courting a citation of for the contempt. Because we already issued the subpoena for them to produce those documents and so far none of us in the Senate in the committee believe that these documents are indeed privileged.

Q: Kasi daw meron daw casement from the Supreme Court with regards the minutes of the meeting particular documents na hinihingi nyo for NEDA

ASC: Appending case does not stop us from ruling whether or not it is a privileged; unless there is a TRO from the Supreme Court then we have to respect that because if we make that our rule then that's precisely what Commissioner Garcilliano did in the lower house he filed the case himself and then when we asked him questions he kept on saying there's a pending case. So kung ganun and gagawin naming lahat ng ahensya magfa-file na lang ng case kasi as far as we're concern napakalinaw naman ng procedure ng executive privileged. It was on the individual initiative of the some Senators to go to the Supreme Court of course we thank them for it maka-clarify yung issue but its not in any way, it's not constitute any stifle sa committee from pursuing it.

Q: other individuals mentioned by Joey last time

ASC: We also sent out invitation for them and we're getting their responses today.

Q: Sina Razon sir?

ASC: Yes, Mr. Aboitiz, Mr. Razon, yung mga sinabi ni Joey na my plot against him. Sina General Berroya. Almost all of those mentioned where given invitations but aside from them yung Telco operator we asked specifically for technical people who can tell us three things. #1 yung present coverage nila, #2 yung projection nila yung growth nila for the next three years and yung #3 is to explain certain technology to us, so that malaman nga natin kung talagang yung NBN project na yon ay kailangan o hindi. Siguro yung isa lang na tinitignan din nang committee at this point ay yung Cyber-Ed project because nga we have this three documents all telling us to that a, DOTC was telling DepEd at the start na kasama na kasama na sa NBN ang CyberEd at hindi kaya ng DepEd patakbuhin ang isang high tech program na katulad nito, so may parang missing link na naman. Kailan at pano, at san nangyari na biglang kaya na ng DepEd at mas malaki pa ang kontrata nito. So at this poin in time we're not saying anything wrong with the CyberEd project, nakakapagtaka lang na mas mura yung NBN at kasama na dito biglang lahat ng official documents nagbago so hinahanap naming yung dokyumento, discussion, policy change, or whatever that show the shift na hindi na kasama sa ang NBN yung CyberEd at my separate backbone na piniprepare so that's aside from what I've mention kanina that's the only new aspect that we're looking into at this point in time.

Q: But if they fail to attend, yung sina Razon wala namang,invitational naman sila di ba?

ASC: Yes, well there are three types of witnesses kasi. One yung nabanggit lang yung pangalan then pwede silang magreply. #2 yung agency na kailangan naming ideal sila o yung documents, #3 yung private sector pero they can point us in the right way. So depende sa interpretasyon nung mga miyembro pag sinabi ng ibang miyembro, so pag sinabi ng ibang miyembro na hindi lang pang clear ng main yan maituturo yan papunta sa investigation then we can move na something stronger than the invitation later on. But so far we sent out invitation then we will know tomorrow.

Q: Si FG Sir?

ASC: Si first gentleman ay asked by the Blue Ribbon Committee who is already complied to write the doctor of the senate, yung physician natin, and yun pala ang nagging standard procedure before na kapag may nag submit ng medical certificate we don't rely on the medical certificate we rely on our own senate physicians findings so I asked the Senate physician to verify yung isinabmit sa atin, to submit his report. I hope he has a report by tomorrow kasi last week ko pa binigay yon so we'll follow it up.

I don't know what their procedure is whether they'll just look at the certificate or to call the doctor basta I asked the majority leader and other members. Yan daw ang ginawa nila kay Secretary Gonzales at Chairman Zabio so basta't ang letter ko ay generic.

Q: Sina Razon Sir, walang confirmation?

ASC: I think yung kay Mr. Aboitiz wala pa, kay Mr. Razon daw he's on travel but I can instruct the director general now to tell you who were invited lahat-lahat at kung sino na nag-confirm. Kasi as of as given to me, as of as an hour ago but still following up, but I'll instruct them right now

Q: ZTE officials

ASC: ZTE officials sabi ni Atty. Viduan, whose their attorney, he will send a letter I don't know if he is also attending.

Just for clarification baka tanungin nyo kung bakit napaka-daming governors, kasi dadating at dadating don, sinong pumunta, so almost everyone na may position sa governors league pinadalhan na naming ng invitation. And standard naman sa aming invitation na kung gusto nilang magpadala

ASC:The President said that she initiated an investigation into the alleged bribery of Sec. Neri but as you heard during the Committee hearing none of those involved were ever questioned�Sec. Neri, Joey de Venecia even Chairman Abalos denied that anyone from Malacanang, from PAGC or any agency asked them a question. So its essential to our investigation to know what was the response of the president when she was told that Sec. Neri was being offered 200 million theres so much speculation�

Q: Sir executive privilege yung sinasabi nya...

Well yun ang sinasabi nya but we have never accepted that that falls under executive privilege. And aside from that when joey de venecia told us, the alleged response of the president..sec. neri went to media and said and denied it, so hindi naman pwede na panay deny sya so pano bukas kung may magsabing ang sabi ni presidente tanggapin mo o may magaapear naman na ang sabi ni presidente ganito, o ang sabi ni presidente ipakulong mo si Abalos...he'll just keep on denying it without telling us kung ano talaga ang nangyari,

Q:Kung wala talagang naging directive ang presidente regarding that alleged suhulan...

ASC:We will draw our conclusion from it...even with out the testimony of Sec. Neri, we will draw our conclusion but we do want to be fair to the president that's why we're asking him . Kasi any reasonable or logical person sinabihan mo na may suhulan at itinuloy pa rin ang kontrata anong iisipin mo?

Q:Di ba may tinanggal na PAGC official..

ASC:That's it! These are the facts present. No.1 Neri told the president .2 She ordered an investigation but no one can testify that there was an investigation at all. No.3 All testimonies, all documents showed that pinatuloy pa rin nila ang project so were only asking these to be fair to her. Logically we can draw a conclusion so far na alam na niyang may bribery bakit ipinatuloy pa rin nya ang project.

Q:Yung end in view para mabuo ang exchange between Neri and the President...

ASC:Well the difference between the Blue Ribbon sa ibang Committee we can have a finding of culpability so that's part of it...we want to be very careful in the findings that we exhausted all means to get all the sides that's why even if the First Gentleman will be found if eventually be found not fit to attend. We're exploring other means of sending him a questionnaire.

Q:Even if hes denying it sa media as long as di sya pumunta dito sa senate...

ASC:Yes, Kasi hindi under oath ang kanyang denial tapos idedeny nya and then sasabihin nya na executive privilege. Hindi pwede na pag pabor sa kanyang presidente o sa kanyang superior ilalabas nya sa media iaaccept naming pag hindi pabor executive privilege.

Q:..Baka naman bilib sya sa project.Masama ba na pinatuloy ang project...

ASC:That's why we want to give them the chance to Sec. Neri baka naman sinabi sa kanya na imbestigahan mo..kung may overprice tanggalin mo but with out the testimony all of the present testimony on record dito sa senate...alam nyang bulok ang project, everpriced at di kailangan pero itinuloy par rin nya, that's why what we're doing is giving her the chance to show that there was some circumstances that lead her to continue the project. But so far ngayon panay shield eh..parang pinalalabas ang nagdesisyon nito ang DOTC. Pero pwede bang ang DOTC utusan ang NEDA board na ang CHAIRMAN ang Presidente. So these questions pwedeng sagutin ng Secretary neri.

Q:Sir sabi ni Sec. Ermita kailangan dawn g advance questions from there saka nila iaasses kung pupunta si Sec. Neri...

ASC:Alam mo na madalas ang Malacanang naghaharap ng mga kriminal sa harap. Isipin mo kung ang iniimbestigahan nila yun ang sabihin sa kanila send us advance questions saka namin sasagutin. Precisely this is an investigation involving graft and corruption we can send them generic questions but paano yung mga follow up questions naming...it will show whether they're lying or not.

Q:Kung wala ba si Neri tuloy pa rin ang hearing?

ASC:Yes.

Q:Papakulong ba sya kaagad or...

ASC:There'll be a procedure so may magmomotion to hold in contempt if we have majority of the members then we will arrest.. minsan kasi mayroon explain why we will hold you in contempt.

Ang sentiment ng mga senators bilisan we want na before December. Ang gusto ko sana ang last hearing first week of December. Whatever penalty sa contempt we want to do it very quickly because ang point ng parusang iyon ay to get him to talk and the longer he dont the longer na mabibinbin ang investigation na ito.

What ever the procedure in the Sabio decision we will follow that. So depende talaga sa takbo ng debate.

Q:Sir di kayo natatakot sa maaaring maging epekto nito na baka mapintasan ang senado...

ASC:Mas takot ako sa repercussion na yung check and balance na ang congreso o ang senado at binabale wala ng mga secretaries at nagtatago. Kasi ang transparency and accountability eto lang ang nagpeprevent ng corruption so kapag binigyan natin ng blanket authority ang mga secretaries at mga nasa ahensya ng gobyerno kung kailan nila gusto o kailan nila ayaw mas malaki ang harm nito kaysa sa iexcersise ng senado ang kanyang contempt power. We could have exercise it so many times ditto sa doble hearing dirto sa ZTE hearing but we've been very cautious...Sobra naman , nangangako sa amin�may vital information, and then hindi nasusundin ang batas hindi pa susundin ang sariling salita. So this time decisive na ang committee...

We're still hoping he's going to attend tomorrow or at the very least if Malacanang is preventing him from attending he should just tell us para ma temper an gaming mga actions. So far panay flimsy excuses.

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