Press Release
September 14, 2007

Villar maintains position to shelve broadband deal

Senate President Manny Villar reiterated that the controversial national broadband network deal between the Philippine government and China's ZTE Corp. should be at best jettisoned.

"Itong particular na deal na ito sa tingin ko dapat ibasura na lang (This deal should be shelved)," Villar underscored in a radio interview.

"Ang ganyang kalalaking deal dapat diyan talagang matagal na iniaanunsiyo, pinag-uusapan at hinihingi ang comment ng lahat (Agreements involving a huge amount such as this should have been made public, discussed and scrutinized with the participation of all concerned sectors in the interest of transparency)," he said.

The Senate president and Nacionalista Party president said, "�Hindi yung very secretive na walang nakakaalam, pag nahuli nawawala yung dokumento (This deal should not have been arranged surreptitiously, with apparently no one 'knowing' the particulars and with the documents suddenly turning out to be missing)."

"Labing-anim na bilyong piso, nawawala ang mga dokumento. Di ba't tayo ay nakakatawa (This deal involves P16 billion and the documents disappear in thin air? Are we not being outrageous)?" he lamented.

"Kaya sa akin, ang ganitong practices, ito ang medyo nagpapasama ng loob sa paghatol kay Pangulong Erap (These practices make it even harder to accept the verdict on President Estrada)."

"Kung gusto ng administrasyong ipakitang desidido sila at patas, dapat walang mga ganyan (If this administration wants to show its resolve to be objective and fair, then practices such as these must certainly have no place in government)," Villar said.

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