The newest witness, Dante Madriaga in the Senate investigation of the ZTE-NBN scandal is the exact opposite of Jun Lozada. Both are electrical / electronics engineers. While Jun is Chinese white, small, fragile-looking, crybaby, soft-spoken and very respectful, Dante is Filipino dark, big, tough-looking, tough-talking and very confident.
Filipinos love underdogs. Most Filipinos’ instinct is to shield the small crybaby from the “dark forces”. But with the tough-talking roughneck, the natural instinct of most Filipinos is to let him be. He looks strong enough to fight his own battles.
This is quite unfortunate. One should never judge a book by its cover. From both their testimonies, as well as the others’ testimonies, I infer that Jun Lozada was Romulo Neri’s hitman or henchman. On the other hand, Dante Madriaga, looked to me like a no nonsense technical man who could be Leo San Miguel’s errand boy.
But before going to Madriaga’s fearless exposé, let us first look at Gaite’s nose-lengthening tale.
GAITE
Deputy Executive Manny Gaite appeared once again at the Senate. But this time, it is doubtful if anybody believed his testimony at all. Senator Joker Arroyo asked everyone to have an open mind concerning Gaite. He said that Gaite’s brother is a priest and his sister is a nun. And like Jun Lozada, there are also priests and nuns praying for Gaite. Really!!?!
Gaite was Senator Arroyo’s Executive Assistant when he was President Cory Aquino’s Executive Secretary. Gaite has been working for the government since President Marcos’s time. He is not a career bureaucrat. He is a career political appointee.
Manny Gaite wants people to believe that he gave Jun Lozada, practically a stranger to him, half a million pesos out of his own pocket because he pitied Lozada. Lozada texted him that he was running out of money abroad and had no winter clothes. Being a Good Samaritan, he immediately gave P 500,000.00 to Jun’s brother to be sent to him abroad.
First, Jun did not ask money from him. Even if he insinuated, Jun never gave a specific amount. So why did he give half a million pesos (US $ 12,500.00) instead of 50,000 pesos like what Mike Defensor did or even P 200,000.00 ?
Second, he gets a salary of P35,000 to 40,000 as Deputy Executive Secretary. So where did he get his money?
He claimed that he got it from a fund he borrowed from his uncle, which would be used for the renovation of his in-law’s house. Ooops, that does not seem to be a typical human action. Nobody would give away a huge amount of money to a stranger, especially if that money is meant for other people’s use.
Senator Arroyo explained that even though he is a senator, the Gaites (the Gaite clan) are richer than him. They come from the same province in Bicol.
Perhaps in 1986, the Gaites were richer than the Arroyos. But now, that would be impossible. Joker Arroyo has been in power – from Executive Secretary to Congressman to Senator – since 1986. The money spent by Arroyo just for his TV ads in the last senatorial elections is already proof that he is a very rich man.
Besides, Manny Gaite’s declared worth amounts to only a few million pesos.
Third, the piece of paper which Jun’s brother signed indicating that he received the money did not even indicate Gaite’s name. Why would anybody lend a big amount to anyone without even indicating his, the lender’s, name? It only means that the money was not a loan but a gift.
I am sure that Gaite does not think that the Senators are gullible. It takes either courage or total lack of self-respect to lie, under oath, in front of senators, the media people, and the millions of people watching TV and listening to the radio.
Before this happened, practically everyone in the government – all administrations from Marcos to GMA – have nothing but good words to say about Gaite. If this is the kind of person that government people are proud of, then the Filipinos are really doomed.
Come to think of it, how could the supposedly human rights and anti-Marcos activist, Joker Arroyo get Gaite as his E.A. when Gaite was working with the Marcos administration? And how did Gaite smoothly transfer from a very lucrative post in the Erap administration (as undersecretary of Presidential Committee on Flagship Projects and Programs under Aventajado) to a very sensitive post in Gloria’s administration. Gaite must be one smooth operator.
MADRIAGA – the ZTE Bomb
Lozada revealed to us the corruption involved from the point of view of NEDA’s head (Sec. Neri). Madriaga gave us a more comprehensive picture as it is viewed from the source itself – ZTE, the Chinese firm involved in this scandal.
Dante Madriaga is an Electrical Engineering graduate of UP (Class ’66) and attended Texas A&M University. He did not say whether he got what degree from Texas A&M. He said he was the head of the Design Team of the ZTE-NBN project and was the liaison officer to NEDA, CICT AND TELOF.
FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE
According to Mr. Madriaga, the Filipino group in the Fil-Chinese consortium was composed of Ruben Reyes, Gen. Quirino de la Torre, Benjamin Abalos and Leo San Miguel. San Miguel was his immediate superior. Reyes was the leader of the group. Gen. de la Torre was the Financier.
According to Sen. Lacson, de la Torre was formerly Comptroller of PNP.
A very important and revealing fact that he said was that the initial true cost (excluding profits) of the project was US $ 50 MILLION. This is FIRST HAND knowledge since he was the Head of the Design Team.
According to Madriaga, the Consortium added US $ 80 million to the cost. This information is still FIRST HAND knowledge because he has to be told how much cost he would present it to CICT or whatever group. He told the Senate that it was important to see profit margins from the beginning to appreciate the “exponential” rise of the profits.
The SECOND HAND knowledge is the information allegedly told to him by his boss, Leo San Miguel that half of the amount would go to the Chinese group while the other half would go to the Filipino group.
Then he said that to “match ARESCOM coverage”, they had to redesign the project. The new cost was US $ 109 Million but would be presented as US $ 189 Million. This is still FIRST HAND knowledge.
Later, they had to redesign the project again because the government did not want any satellites. So the new project was peddled at around US $ 269 (or US $ 262) Million. The overprice (profits plus commissions) was US $ 140 Million. This is still FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE.
This (260 plus million dollars) was the price they presented to CICT and TelOf. This is corroborated by Jun Lozada who testified that the initial price was around US $ 260 Million with “commissions” amounting to US $ 130 Million.
(See my post Jun Lozada, Police And Senate Play Hide And Seek )
Mr. Madriaga then said that later, they had to redesign the project again so that it will have 100 % coverage. The new “selling price” was US $ 329 Million Dollars. The “profits” for both groups amount to US $ 199 MILLION. This is still FIRST HAND knowledge.
The new selling price was corroborated by Mr. Lozada’s and Mr. Formoso’s testimonies.
The above information alone is already very telling. It gives a fuller picture. In the Jun Lozada testimony, it appears that all the commission goes to Mr. Abalos. Somehow, the Chinese partners appeared clean businessmen who just agreed to whatever commissions Mr. Abalos wanted. Mr. Madriaga made it very clear that the Chinese were just as greedy as the Filipino counterparts. In fact, whatever amount the Filipino group wanted, they wanted exactly the same for themselves.
And Mr. Madriaga pointed out that he believes that the Chinese are even getting higher. Of course, the Chinese can get the supplies at a discount. And they would not need to divulge the discount to the Filipinos. This also explains why there is no problem from the Chinese side (the bank, the government, etc.)
Mr. Madriaga’s scenario is more logical and more comprehensive than Mr. Lozada’s.
Aside from the above, Mr. Madriaga also had very interesting information, based on first hand knowledge.
He said that Asst. Secretary Frank Perez, son of former Sec. Nani Perez objected to the costs and design of the project. Madriaga was told not to worry because “protektado tayo dito” (We are protected here). And so, Perez was immediately replaced by Formoso as the government officer-in-charge for the project.
This partly explains Formoso’s staunch defense of the project. It also gives the Senate the chance to call Perez to testify. And quite importantly, this tells the people that there are good people in government but they are immediately silenced if they don’t tow the line.
SECOND HAND KNOWLEDGE
Mr. Madriaga’s testimony on how the commission pie would have been shared and the various advances made is hearsay because it is second hand knowledge. But first, he has two sources – Mr. Leo San Miguel and Ms. Fan Yang, the comptroller of ZTE.
Second, the information provided to him must be given the benefit of the doubt until the sources categorically deny them and that these sources are proven more credible than Mr. Madriaga.
Third, this gives the Senate the reason to call on the sources – Mr. San Miguel and Ms. Fan Yang.
The information provided by Mr. Madriaga based on what Mr. San Miguel and Ms. Fan Yang told him are:
– The First Couple are in on the kickbacks
– Advances to the Filipino group totaled US $ 41 MILLION
– US $ 30 MILLION was given to the First Couple “in aid of elections”
– Payments were made in Hong Kong through Cayman Islands
– The President was forced to go to China to sign because that was the Chinese condition in order to release the P 30 M advance money.
– The ZTE-NBN contract was not lost. ASEC Formoso was forced to say it was lost because he was afraid to show the contract to telecom people and other businessmen in that particular affair. Madriaga said that if the telecom people saw the contract, they would immediately see the huge overprice.
Mr. Madriaga’s testimony completes the picture of the ZTE-NBN Scandal. Mr. Neri could not possibly add to this except if he will say that the President herself knew about the anomalies, other than the P200 Million bribe offer of Mr. Abalos.
MADRIAGA’S CREDIBILITY
There are news reports that say Madriaga could be a Trojan horse or a pakawala (roughly a loose cannon or a pawn) of the government. I simply fail to see any logic in that. Madriaga revealed a lot more damaging information than Lozada. How could he be a pawn of Malacanang? If he would recant later, then that could only mean that he received great incentives from some party. That is why the Senate should give Madriaga ample security protection.
PEOPLE AS THE JUDGE
The Senate hearings are there merely in aid of legislation. They can recommend other actions like asking the Ombudsman or the Justice Department to file charges against some people.
But, to me, the most important function of the Senate hearings is to conduct impartial and thorough investigation of alleged anomalies in full view of the public through the broadcast and even online and print media. The ultimate judge of the culpability of the accused is the Filipino people as a whole. It thus behooves the Filipino people to follow the Senate investigation carefully, analyze the various evidences provided, and assess the credibility of the witnesses. And each one of us should decide the guilt or innocence of everyone concerned. Sovereignty resides with the people.
Like many Filipinos of my generation and older, I memorized the Gettyburg Address in school. I was around 12 years old then, but I still remember what the good Abe Lincoln said: …" the government (is) of the people, by the people and for the people." We, as citizens, must never forget that.
More Power to the Filipino people!
