Reyes is local ZTE ‘facilitator’; Abalos was helping - witness

Article posted March 11, 2008 - 11:49 AM
(Updated 12:20 p.m.) MANILA, Philippines - ZTE witness Leo San Miguel on Tuesday pointed to Ruben Reyes as the "facilitator" of the national broadband network project deal for China's ZTE Corp.

At the resumption of the Senate inquiry into the controversial $329.48-million NBN project, San Miguel - who denied direct knowledge on alleged kickbacks and commissions taken by several individuals from the project - said Reyes' group was ZTE's local contact for the NBN project.

"That's Mr. Ruben Reyes. He's supposed to do the job. Mr Ruben Reyes is the one that introduced me to ZTE through Gen. (Quirino) dela Torre," San Miguel said, adding that the Senate should not expect too much from his testimony since he dealt mostly on technical aspects of the project.

"My view on this whole thing is, in any business transaction, you need a Filipino group to help you and that's Ruben Reyes' group," he added.

Abalos

While he confirmed that resigned Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos was talking with ZTE officials for the project, San Miguel said he does not know if Abalos was "brokering" the deal for the Chinese firm.

"Abalos... has been talking to ZTE as far as the information I'm getting," San Miguel said. When pressed if Abalos was brokering the NBN deal for ZTE, he said: "In that sense, I don't know but he (Abalos) has been helping."

In his testimony, San Miguel said it was "standard" that those helping ZTE get the deal would get commissions.

"Commissions are standard. If someone helps them sell, they will get commissions... (But) the commissions are discussed among themselves," San Miguel said.

"I am not aware of any kickbacks, 'lagayan'," he added.

Senator Francis Pangilinan explored this statement, asking San Miguel on the identity of those whom he said could be discussing about commissions. When further asked, San Miguel said that if somebody would get commissions from the project, it would be Reyes and "possibly" Abalos. - GMANews.TV