Grilled : FIRST PERSON

By Alex Magno - Philippine Star

Senator Richard Gordon was right to lean hard on “witness” Dante Madriaga. The man brought crap to the Senate floor.

Not that the crap is undeserved.

Before this witness could speak, Sen. Jamby Madrigal tried to steal the show by waving a document that turned out to be maliciously doctored. The senator claimed that the document, a letter regarding the broadband project, had scribbled on it “copy for FG.” From there, she launched a vicious tirade against the First Gentleman, demanding to know why he was being furnished a copy of communications regarding the project.

The senator thought she had an explosive piece of evidence in her hands. But the “smoking gun” turned out to be a royal dud.

What was really scribbled on the photocopied document was “Copy for FGI/PIS.” The initials were those of a specialist at the Public Investments Sector, Florante G. Igtiben, who had every reason to be furnished a copy of documents relevant to the project.

Confronted with the facts, Sen. Madrigal mumbled something completely nonsensical: Why does this guy have the same initials as the First Gentleman? Perhaps he is the latter’s bagman?
Duh!?!

In pulling this stunt, suggesting the Chinese Embassy was part of a grand conspiracy to defraud the Filipino taxpayer, Sen. Madrigal imperils our diplomatic relations with a close trading partner and a global economic superpower. The Chinese Embassy issued a statement that was unprecedented in its tone, calling the senator’s accusations baseless and highly irresponsible.

The circus at the Senate, driven by politicians attempting to win media visibility in preparation for 2010 is getting a bit out of hand. This circus is not only scaring away investments, it is also damaging our foreign relations.

In their desperate attempt to keep this thin melodrama going, some of the senators are pulling strange pieces of evidence and even stranger witnesses out of the hat.

Madriaga’s written account has been circulating in the e-groups, swallowed hook, line and sinker by those who have condemned the national leadership without the benefit of a fair hearing. I must have received ten copies of this account from ten different sources weeks ago, testament to the dangerous unaccountability of people who recklessly put things on the blogs.

During the last hearing, Senator Gordon challenged self-styled “witness” Madriaga to sign a copy of his written account as a submission to the Senate. Madriaga hedged, claiming he had a more precise version in his flash disk. When that version was printed out by the Senate staff, he continued to refuse signing it, offering the lame excuse that he did not have a lawyer with him.

On close examination, the real reason for Madriaga’s refusal to certify his written version becomes clear. There are glaring discrepancies between what he said and what he wrote, between what he wrote initially and what he wrote in the revised document, and between what he claims and what Joey de Venecia said.

For instance, Madriaga claims a total of $46 million was doled out by the winning bidder to what the “witness” cutely describes as the Greedy Group. In his testimony, however, the “witness” said that $41 million was disbursed — ostensibly because the $5 million share of Joey de Venecia was not released. In the original version of his story, however, Madriaga clearly said that Joey’s share had indeed been released.

All of the supposed disbursements have been angrily denied by ZTE, a publicly listed company whose financial records should be open to examination.

In his document, Madriaga put a date on the supposed meeting at Wack Wack where the First Gentleman was supposed to have badmouthed Joey. That date was December 5, 2006.

On that date, however, hospital records would show that the First Gentleman was confined at St. Luke’s hospital after undergoing angioplasty. Could have snuck out of the ICU to play a round of golf and do stressful things like intimidating Joey?

Perhaps the Senate, in the interest of truth, which they profess to seek, should put Joey de Venecia, Jun Lozada and Dante Madriaga in three different soundproof rooms as they do in television game shows. Then the good senators should go through the numbers, more carefully this time.

This escaped the attention of the senators soft-pedaling on their preferred witnesses: Joey says the fair value of the project should be $130 million; Madriaga says it is $50 million. Lozada claims the initial cost of the project at $262 million already included the supposed $130 million in commissions; Joey says the actual project cost of $262 million was ballooned to $329 million in order to accommodate the $130 million in supposed commissions.

Grill them. Grill them hard. Some, or all, of them might be committing perjury here.

Or else, how could the discrepancies be so glaring? And why is it that none of the three versions offered by these “witnesses” could be independently corroborated?

There is something amiss in this highly embroidered narrative being offered the public.

Those who are offering the public this thin melodrama should at least tighten up the story line and make it coherent. And those who now call for a political cataclysm on the basis of a glaringly incoherent narrative should hold back their excitement here.

There is much, much more that we need to know.