DOTC submits NBN documents to Senate

Unlike the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) has submitted to the Senate documents related to the $329-million national broadband network deal between the government and the Chinese firm ZTE Corp.

However, the DOTC maintained it had no copy of the documents that would show the deal had been perfected – the forward obligation authority from the Department of Budget and Management to prove the government has the ability to pay for the loan, and the loan agreement between China Exim Bank and the Department of Finance.

DOTC Assistant Secretary Lorenzo Formoso submitted the Commission on Audit reports and the Telecommunications Office budget from 1996 to the present and a printed copy of his power point presentation during a forum at the Ateneo Professional School on June 20, where he disclosed that the contract was lost but reconstituted.

As directed by the Senate, DOTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza also sent the legal opinion of the Department of Justice on the procurement process and the ratification by the Philippines and China of the executive agreement.

Mendoza promised to submit the location of 300 base stations for the NBN project, the breakdown of the total communication cost of the government of P4.6 billion, and the complete list of any government having an NBN owned by the government itself.

“We have been fully apprised and aware of the importance of such a mandatory directive coming from the Senate. I have already directed the responsible officials and personnel of the DOTC to immediately comply with your honorable committee’s instructions and we will be forwarding you the necessary documentation no later than Friday,” he said in a letter to Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee.

“We fervently hope that through the documents that will be submitted we will be able to address important matters about the NBN project before your honorable committee and also in order to shed some light and clarification in your investigations so that the issues regarding this matter will be cleared once and for all,” Mendoza said.

Earlier, Acting NEDA Director General and Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Augusto Santos refused to submit to the Senate certain documents related to the deal, saying they were confidential and covered by executive privilege.

In particular, Santos cited the confidentiality of the minutes of the NEDA-Investment Coordination Committee meetings as the discussions were done in closed-door Cabinet and NEDA meetings.

But former NEDA director general Romulo Neri said all NEDA documents were public and are even posted on the agency’s website.

Santos also said the NBN project was not yet a finalized project and it was premature to release documents prior to the conclusion of all implementing agreements under the framework of an executive agreement.