Ombudsman urged to wait for Senate report on NBN

MANILA, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman is being asked to wait for the Senate Blue Ribbon committee’s report on the national broadband network (NBN) anomaly involving Chinese firm ZTE Corp. so that it can build a stronger case against those indicted and possibly build a new case against First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo.

Lawyer Ernesto Francisco Jr., in a motion filed yesterday, said the anti-graft agency’s investigating panel should consider the results of the legislative inquiry as additional testimonial evidence against former elections chief Benjamin Abalos and Social Security System president Romulo Neri.

The Senate Blue Ribbon committee, chaired by Sen. Richard Gordon, reopened its investigation into the NBN controversy days after the Ombudsman indicted Abalos and Neri last Aug.27.

In his motion for reconsideration, Francisco said the Office of the Ombudsman should recommend the filing of additional graft charges against Abalos and the indictment of Mr. Arroyo at least for violating Executive Order 317, which prescribes a Code of Conduct for relatives of the president.

Francisco also said the committee report would help boost the case against those indicted just as the transcriptions of the earlier hearings on the issue had helped the Ombudsman build up evidence against Neri and Abalos.

“Complainant hereby manifests that he will be adopting the said committee report, together with its supporting evidence, in support of his motion for partial reconsideration,” he said.

“A perusal of the 144-page Joint Resolution will show that the Honorable Office used and extensively cited the said transcript of proceedings of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, as it had previously subpoenaed on complainant’s motion,” Francisco said.

“Thus, there is no plausible reason why the Honorable Office will not grant the instant motion and suspend and or defer its resolution of complainant’s Motion for Partial Reconsideration, as well as the other pending motions for reconsideration, to await the issuance of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee’s report on the NBN-ZTE deal and its adoption in the instant proceeding,” he stressed.