Babe's Eye View article

This country never seems to learn from experience, failing to understand just how important international commitments are in a global world. Whether projects, contracts, agreements or biddings, we always seem to foul things up—from the "Amari Bulgari" to the Manila Hotel, Masinloc, Northrail, Piatco and Transco—with everything getting tainted by controversies and anomalies.

It's sad that all these botched deals and agreements, many of them involving foreign companies and governments, is giving the impression that this country does not know how to honor its business obligations. Credibility is important and obviously, the perception that we can renege on even the most simple business transaction will drive business investors away.

It's not an exaggeration to say that our reputation before the international community has not been very impressive when it comes to keeping contracts or commitments. One example is international hotelier Arthur Lopez who worked with the Malaysian consortium which won the Manila Hotel bidding fair and square, but unfortunately was overturned by the Supreme Court using "patrimony" as the reason. Out of frustration and embarrassment, Arthur now prefers to close hotel deals abroad obviously, to this country's loss.

And now comes another scandal in the form of the $329 million ZTE national broadband network (NBN) deal. According to DOTC Secretary Larry Mendoza, the NBN project will provide seamless connectivity between all national government agencies and offices through telecommunications services (including cellular and Internet services) at a cost lower than the P4 billion that government already spends annually.

It is also expected to provide a backbone for local government corporations, community E-centers and other state entities down to the poorest municipalities, serving some 25,800 offices nationwide. While the project may have very good intentions, the accompanying scandal surrounding the whole NBN deal seems to far outweigh whatever benefit the government and the entire country may get from it.

It was the mysterious disappearance of the contract—ostensibly "stolen" or "lost" in a hotel room in China that opened the proverbial can of worms. Suspicions that there was something fishy about the whole thing started when officials refused to disclose the terms of the deal—which ironically, Cabinet members have difficulty describing, with Gary Teves calling it a supplier's contract while Peter Favila says it's a memorandum of agreement and Mendoza calling it a contract. These suspicions were fanned by blind items about the alleged "sexcapades" of a very high-ranking Comelec official courtesy of ZTE.

The shit hit the fan, so to speak, when Nueva Vizcaya Rep. Carlos Padilla named the Comelec official as Chairman Ben Abalos. While Abalos can keep denying he had nothing to do with the ZTE deal, he had admitted that ZTE officials were his golfing buddies and that they paid for his controversial China trips. Worse, his daughter, Girlie, gets help from a ZTE director in sourcing Chinese products for her import business.

As a public servant, Ben Abalos should be aware about the adage that "Ceasar's wife" should be above suspicion. On the other hand, Joey de Venecia cannot also claim to be on high moral ground in this whole issue. In the first place, his Amsterdam Holdings Inc. was one of the companies vying for the broadband project. Second, the fact that he is the son of Speaker Joe de Venecia carries with it the perception that he may have undue influence or advantage.

Opinion is also divided regarding the necessity of this broadband project, which some claim is overpriced. There are those who insist this is not really needed and would just be a waste of public funds since government does not have the capability to handle a complex information technology infrastructure. Besides which, it will only be competing with the two largest and privately-operated telecoms entities, and could push up the cost of broadband rates for subscribers instead of lowering them.

We may boast that we are a country where the rule of law applies to all, proving this by punishing a former president. But in light of all these controversies and scandals that have continued to plague this government, we cannot really blame so many people who have already become so cynical about the government—snidely remarking, "pare-pareho silang lahat" (they're all the same). It's rather unfortunate that we seem to love washing our dirty linen in public, which makes the work of building up our credibility before the international business community quite difficult.

The bottom line is we have to be careful with international commitments. At the end of the day, while we are a country that must honor international commitments, above all, we have to make sure that everything is clear and transparent and not make the same mistake over and over again.

"Madam wetness" Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol did his boss in by flashing that stupid victory sign right after the guilty verdict was read, which obviously made him look like he was gloating. Worse, after he claimed it was just a joke, he said Erap should be jailed in Leyte so he could become a tourist attraction. Was that really necessary? Somebody should tell Mr. "Madam wetness" that he's just fanning the flames of anger and resentment among Erap supporters. Besides, one should be magnanimous in victory and in this country, you never kick a man when he's already down.