Press Release
March 7, 2008

Villar to Greedy Group: Appear or face arrest

Four persons tagged by former ZTE consultant Dante Madriaga as members of the "Greedy Group plus plus" that allegedly hatched the kickbacks-laden deal will be arrested by the Senate if they will ignore the summons for them to appear before the Senate on Tuesday.

Senate President Manny Villar said warrants of arrest will be issued against cable TV executive Leo San Miguel, retired police general Quirino de la Torre, businessman Ruben Reyes, and resigned Comelec chair Benjamin Abalos if they will not show up in the March 11 hearing called by the three Senate committees investigating the $329 million broadband deal.

"The process is that if they will ignore the subpoena, the warrant of arrest will follow. But hopefully some of them will appear," he said.

Villar said "some of the personalities mentioned by Madriaga have said they would like to come to the Senate to clear their name and we are now providing them that opportunity."

"We do not enjoy issuing arrest warrants. We do so out of reluctance and as a last resort. This is part of the job of the Senate and we will not abdicate on our duty to ferret out the truth on cases where the public interest is at stake," Villar said

The Senate leader said he was not giving up hope on Commission on Higher Education Chairman Romulo Neri appearing in the Senate even before the Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the executive privilege invoked by Neri.

"If he will show up and answer all questions truthfully, then that will prove that EO 464 has been discarded. The proof of the scrapping of that issuance is in his answering of our questions," he said.

But if Neri will not appear, "then we will keep ourselves busy with the persons Madriaga has mentioned in his testimony here as members of the greedy bunch," Villar said

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