Press Release
September 6, 2007

ON THE ZTE DEAL...

"Unless we pull the bull by the horns and cancel this messy deal, I foresee this ZTE infra contract going the route of NAIA 3 wherein lawsuits and counter lawsuits led to the stalling and the horrendous delay in the implementation of the project. This in turn will give the country another black eye in the international business community reinforcing the perception that doing business in the Philippines is fraught with too many roadblocks."

"This adversely affects our competitiveness as a nation. Considering that we are just in the initial stage, the prudent thing to do is for us to cut and cut cleanly. Minimize our 'losses' and start afresh. We have seen many government deals that have been quite successful because the process was transparent and more importantly the parties played by the rules. The privatization of MWSS, the sale of Fort Bonifacio and the privatization of NLEX to name a few."

"The moral lesson to all who wish to do business in the Philippines is that for as long as there is transparency and the parties play by the rules you can succeed in doing business in the Philippines. I foresee that if we do not act now and rescind the contract while we still can, the ZTE contract will go the route of NAIA 3, 5 ears and counting and it still isn't operational. Our nation and people will ultimately suffer the brunt of this irregularity."

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