Romulo Neri, recycled as administrator of the Social Security System after being shunted from the National Economic and Development Authority to the Commission on Higher Education, was suspended yesterday from his SSS post for six months by the Office of the Ombudsman. He also faces graft charges for his role in the aborted national broadband network deal between ZTE Corp. and the Department of Transportation and Communications.
Neri reaped criticism after he invoked executive privilege in refusing to speak further about the role of President Arroyo in the ZTE deal. He was originally a whistle-blower, like his friend Rodolfo Lozada Jr. Neri had told the Senate that Benjamin Abalos, at the time the chairman of the Commission on Elections, had offered him P200 million for a NEDA endorsement of the broadband deal. Neri said he told President Arroyo about the offer. The President, Neri testified, told him to reject the offer. What her other comments were, Neri refused to disclose further after he invoked executive privilege.
The President left her husband’s sickbed to witness the formal signing of the deal in Boao, China between ZTE executives and Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza. The original copy of what was signed in Boao has disappeared, with the official who had custody of it, DOTC Undersecretary Lorenzo Formoso, still unable to explain the loss. It would take the President many more months plus the resignation of Abalos before she would cancel the deal.
Abalos has been indicted by the Ombudsman for graft together with Neri. Are they the most guilty? Abalos faces a separate case for corruption of public officials before a trial court in his home turf, Mandaluyong City. The President and First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, who was also accused of brokering for the deal, together with Mendoza, Formoso and ZTE executives were cleared. Neri, who insists the NEDA does not approve projects, now finds himself facing a long legal battle plus a six-month suspension.
As of yesterday afternoon, Neri was unfazed by his suspension, which he will probably enjoy like a protracted vacation. Asked by an interviewer yesterday about what the President had told him regarding the ZTE deal, Neri replied, “I will bring it to my grave.” Spoken like a true believer in omerta, the code of Sicily’s gangsters.