THE Sandiganbayan acquitted former Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos of charges that he brokered for a fee the anomalous deal between the Chinese firm ZTE Corp. for the government’s national broadband network (NBN) project in 2007.
The anti-graft court’s Fourth Division said the Ombudsman failed to prove the charge over the $329-million deal.
“Accused Benjamin Abalos is acquitted for the charge against him for failure of the prosecution to establish his guilt beyond reasonable doubt,” the Fourth Division’s 43-page resolution read.
“The failure of the prosecution to sufficiently establish its allegation that the accused brokered for XTE for a fee in the concluded NBN-ZTE contract has rendered moot the legal issue on whether the alleged act constitutes the offense defined under Republic Act No. 3019 (h).”
Abalos, who was the subject of more than a dozen suits by the Aquino administration all of which were dismissed for lack of merit, said he looks forward to moving on after his acquittal.
“[I’m] much relieved,” Abalos said after the promulgation of the decision. “It’s like a thorn was pulled from my side. Well, move on, move on. As a matter of fact, that is what I have been telling people [to] move on. And that’s what I did. Just have faith in God, especially so if you are telling the truth.”
The Ombudsman indicted Abalos for introducing ZTE Corp. officials to ex-finance secretary Margarito Teves and received “acts of generosity and hospitality” from the firm that bagged a $329-million NBN contract with the government.
Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr., who served as a technical consultant on the national broadband project, accused Abalos of receiving $130 million in kickbacks to secure the overpriced $329-million contract which was approved by then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, a principal accused in the same graft case.
Abalos was also accused of bribing National Economic and Development Authority Director General Romulo Neri with P200 million for the approval of the project, as well as bribing Amsterdam Holdings Inc. president Jose De Venecia III with $10 million.
The graft case stemmed from Lozada’s allegations that Abalos lobbied for the ZTE Corp. to get the contract in exchange for a commission.
Lozada, who was involved in the project as Neri’s technical adviser, had said Abalos wanted to secure his $130-million commission for the project.
Lozada had also said the contract price for the project was signed by the government at $329 million, or $67 million more than the $262 million evaluation which Lozada himself had made as a technical adviser to Neri.