Teves testifies vs Abalos at Sandiganbayan

MANILA, Philippines - Former finance secretary Gary Teves told the Sandiganbayan yesterday about how he and former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. allegedly met with Chinese businessmen from ZTE Corp. in late 2006 or early 2007 prior to the approval and eventually the scrapping of the national broadband network (NBN) deal.

The prosecution presented him as a witness before the anti-graft court’s Fourth Division purportedly to show that the former elections chief was lobbying for the botched $329-million project which is why he is now facing trial for graft.

Teves said his first meeting with the Chinese businessmen was at his house when Abalos asked for a meeting with him and a number of businessmen from China who allegedly had agriculture-related projects in Mindanao.

“He called me, he said he wanted to meet me. I said I can probably meet you in afternoon of Sunday,” he told the Sandiganbayan, noting, however, that he could not remember the exact date of the meeting with Abalos and three Chinese businessmen.

Teves said his second meeting with Abalos and again with three Chinese businessmen, one of whom was present in the first meeting, and former transportation secretary Leando Mendoza was at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club in Mandaluyong City.

“I came late because I had a previous meeting,“ he said, adding that he was only there to help explain the procedures in relation to loan agreements as secretary of finance.

In defense, lawyer Gabriel Villareal, Abalos’ legal counsel, said the two meetings do not establish anything except that there were meetings.

“It’s not lobbying, the (NBN deal) was not even discussed in the first meeting,” he told The STAR in an interview, explaining that Abalos brought the Chinese businessmen to Teves to make a simple courtesy call and talk about agriculture-related matters.

Villareal said the former Cabinet official, while admitting that it was not usual for him to meet investors, actually appreciated and welcomed the chance to meet ZTE officials because he was part of the Arroyo government’s economic team.

Abalos is accused of violating Section 3(h) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act which penalizes “directly or indirectly having financing or pecuniary interest in any business, contract or transaction in connection with which he intervenes or takes part in his official capacity, or in which he is prohibited by the Constitution or by any law from having any interest.”