Two Palace employees summoned by Senate on telecom franchise row

Two Malacañang employees will be summoned to testify in the next hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.

Sen. Joker Arroyo, the committee chairman, said they decided to invite presidential appointments secretary Marita Jimenez and a certain Sergeant Alviz to shed light on the circumstances behind the meeting last August between President Arroyo and telecommunications executive Pacifico Marcelo.

Alviz, reportedly of the Presidential Security Group, fetched Marcelo at a restaurant before escorting him to Malacañang. Marcelo said he entered the Palace through the backdoor, adding he was not made to sign a guest book and was not frisked before his one-on-one meeting with the President.

Opposition Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta said the surreptitious manner in which Marcelo was ushered into Malacañang already gave credence to Marcelo’s claim that the President wanted to wrest from him majority control of his firm, the Phi-lippine Communications Clearinghouse Inc. (PCCI).

In a subsequent testimony, however, Marcelo admitted amid a barrage of questioning by Senators Renato Cayetano, Ralph Recto, Francis Pangilinan and Robert Barbers that it was merely his conclusion that the President wanted to have 51 percent of the PCCI. He admitted she did not make any categorical statement to that effect.

Marcelo also admitted there was only a "slim chance" that the PCCI could have generated annual revenues of some $1.1 billion even if the President had not vetoed the franchise applications.

Under questioning by opposition Sen. Vicente Sotto, Marcelo said his $1.1-billion projection was based on a 20 percent share of the entire annual telecommunications market of $5.5 billion.

"(But) without any clout, you would have no chance that the telecom industry players would interconnect with your operation," Sotto told Marcelo.

Marcelo had earlier claimed President Arroyo vetoed the franchise precisely because of the projected revenues.

However, Sotto clarified that even if the President did not veto the bill, the franchise "does not vest the right on the company to put up a clearing house but just allows it to use the name "clearing house."

In the hearing the other day, Romulo Retirado, a former business associate of Marcelo, said that it was actually Marcelo who sought to have an appointment with the President. Retirado, a former employee of Mrs. Arroyo when she was still a senator, said that he called a certain Jazmine Taquebao, who contacted Jimenez for Marcelo’s meeting with the President.

Arroyo said they have also invited Leah Ledesma, Voltaire Alcantara, Dante Madriaga, Guillermo Yanza Jr. and Efrenito Los Baños to the meeting next week.

"This will be our last meeting. We have already conducted five meetings on the issue and heard numerous witnesses. I want to continue with the hearing on the coconut levy, which affects thousands of farmers," Arroyo said.

Opposition Sen. Edgardo Angara, however, contended that Arroyo cannot unilaterally terminate the Blue Ribbon Committee hearing.

"This is a collegial body so I suggest that before he does that, he should convene the committee. For all I know, all the members might support his recommendations," he said.

At the same time, Angara pressed for the formal submission by the President of her version of the meeting with Marcelo, as proposed earlier by Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr.

"Only the version of Mr. Marcelo of that one-on-one meeting is on record and uncontradicted by the other dialogue partners," he said, explaining why the committee should get the President’s account of that meeting.

Angara said that the President need not personally appear before the Blue Ribbon Committee, as she could give her version through a written statement or through teleconference.

"We are all interested in the truth, and if all we have is statement of only one party to the dialogue, how can we access the whole truth?" he asked.

He also contended that there is no violation of the constitutional separation of powers should the Blue Ribbon ask the President to give her account of her meeting with Marcelo.

"It is ridiculous to think that by doing so she is surrendering the position of the executive. There are many precedents in the past in the United States that support this position of Senator Pimentel," Angara stressed.