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MANILA, THE PHILIPPINES - ALLIES of Philippine President Gloria Arroyo forced the government to approve a telecommunications contract that would have given them US$130 million (S$185 million) in kickbacks, a Senate hearing was told Friday.
Rodolfo Lozada, an electronics engineer brought in to assess the national broadband deal, told the inquiry he was told to reduce the kickbacks to Arroyo's allies and to 'moderate their greed.'
The 329-million dollar contract which was won by Chinese firm ZTE has since been scrapped amid allegations of bribery and corruption involving senior government officials and the president's husband, lawyer Jose Miguel Arroyo.
Mr Lozada, often wiping tears from his eyes, told the inquiry how he feared for his life.
The fallout from the scandal has cost former Arroyo ally Jose de Venecia his seat as speaker of the House of Representatives and seen the resignation of the chairman of the election commission, Benjamin Abalos, who brokered the deal.
Mr Lozada said Mr Abalos, a close friend of the president's husband, demanded the contract be awarded to the Chinese.
'The trouble started when Abalos came to me to sell the ZTE proposal in September 2006,' Mr Lozada said under oath.
He said Mr Abalos had told him 'you have to protect our 130 (million dollars).'
'I warned him, that would stick out but we might be able to get 65 (million dollars),' Mr Lozada said.
Mr Lozada said Economic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri, who eventually approved the revised contract to ZTE, instructed him to 'moderate their greed.'
Over the next 16 months Lozada said he met Mr Abalos, de Venecia's son Joey de Venecia, ZTE officials, a commercial counsellor from the Chinese embassy in Manila, and the president's husband to discuss the project.
Mr De Venecia's son, who lost out to the Chinese last year, had previously told the Senate about bribes and kickbacks and the roles of Mr Abalos and Mrs Arroyo's husband in the deal.
Mrs Arroyo's spokesman Ignacio Bunye on Thursday said the senate inquiry was nothing more than 'grandstanding.'
Mr Lozada said that when it initially appeared that the Chinese proposal would lose out, Mr Abalos called him in January 2007 and said: 'Don't ever show your face at Wack Wack (a central Manila golf course) or I will have you killed.'
The witness told the senate he asked to be taken off the project evaluation team after that. 'This is not worth risking my life for,' he said. -- AFP
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