Pia: Don't 'hijack' Neri from Senate probe

Senator Pia S. Cayetano on Monday warned against Malacanang's efforts to prevent former National Economic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri from testifying on Wednesday before the joint Senate panel investigating the controversial $329-million ZTE-NBN deal.

Cayetano issued the statement amid reports that Neri had accepted the advisory of the Department of Affairs for him to join President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's party to the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week.

"Preventing Secretary Neri from testifying would only stoke further controversy rather than help clarify the issues before the public. Parties with ill motives should back off from Secretary Neri," the lady senator said.

"Neri's testimony would help shed light on major incidents leading to the signing of the ZTE agreement last April in Boao, China. Did then NEDA Secretary Neri approve the ZTE contract itself, or just the concept for a national broadband network?

"He can also explain the government's policies with regard major contracts, and his own assessment of how the government came to a decision to convert the NBN project from a build-operate-transfer scheme into an outright concession, considering all the risks involved.

"Neri also needs to state under oath whether reports were true that he was offered a P200-million bribe during one of those Wack Wack golf meetings to approve the NBN contract. And that he supposedly reported the bribe offer to President Arroyo, who in turn advised him not to accept, but also instructed him to approve the agreement just the same.

"Secretary Neri holds key information which makes him perhaps the most important witness in the ongoing Senate investigation. The Senate leadership should exhaust all means to frustrate the efforts of those seeking to bar him from testifying. The Senate can go as far as offering him personal security to ensure his safety."