RESCIND ZTE DEAL, PGMA TOLD

The anomalous ZTE broadband deal should be totally abandoned quickly and uncompromisingly with no less than President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo at the forefront of the said move due to the scandalous and malicious nature surrounding the transaction.

This was the challenge posed by opposition Senator Francis "Chiz" Escudero who said that the deal has relegated the country farther into the ebb of shame in the international community. Escudero also urged Finance Secretary Margarito Teves to immediately make the necessary recommendations to abort the deal after the latter admitted through statements made to the media on certain improprieties attendant to the deal.

"The president should take it upon herself to immediately cancel the deal which has been causing so much shame on our already scandal-ridden government. Escudero added that the deal is obviously stinking from all corners that to make a go at it despite of the malodorous circumstances surrounding it would send the country hurtling further backward.

"Sobra nang umaalingasaw ang baho ng transaksyong ito at kailangan nang linisin at ibaon sa lupa para hindi na kumalat pa ang mikrobyong dala nito."

Escudero said the deal, if at all upheld, would spell more trouble for the Arroyo administration for a lot of reasons. For one, because scholarly study proved that the government does not need to own one broadband backbone and that it was not the government's "core competence" to own, maintain and use it separate from the two that already exist. Escudero was referring to the study made by the UP School of Economics.

Second, the deal is onerous from all angles leaving the country at a largely disadvantageous end. "The deal serves no public purpose, not only will it not serve its objective, it will also leave the country and our people in a massive debt."

"We should never anymore endure paying in hundreds of millions the misfeasance and malfeasance of our crooked officials."

On concerns that canceling the deal will make RP renege on its deal, Escudero said this is non-issue because the government is still within its bound to do so because as Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said "there is still no perfected contract yet in the NBN deal."

Escudero meanwhile called for a review of all official development assistance (ODA) projects in the interest of transparency in all transactions. He said that deals of this nature should be an open tender to the public to make officials accountable for their management of these projects.

"We all have the right to timely information. Any projects undertaken with development money should be entrenched with transparency by public accountability for the allocations and expenditures of development funds."