racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

Judging from the ton of comments on my post about the ZTE Broadband Deal I can say that students around the Philippines are not really into political and social issues. Why? Well, their schools ask them to make all sorts of projects, writeups and research papers on the topics that they’re probably sick of it.

And my post wasn’t even about the “ZTE Broadband deal” issue itself! Take a look and you’ll know what I mean.

Sure, I know a few things about the inner dealings of government. Romulo Neri had been my boss for a couple of years, after all, albeit not directly. And the department of NEDA I worked for before was tasked with reviewing projects and facilitating financing from foreign governments, China included. I can say the accusations of alleged corrupt practices are probable.

But that is not to say I know anything about the “ZTE Broadband deal” myself outside of what I hear or read from the news).

If you are interested in learning more about the “ZTE Broadband deal” as it is publicized in the media coverages of the ongoing Philippine Senate inquiry, you can refer to this post about the NBN ZTE Project on Yugatech.

To put it shortly, the project was for a concessional loan by the Chinese government for the procurement and setup of a broadband network by the Philippine government. And as Chinese loans usually go, one condition is that the Chinese government choose the supplier (which is counter to the Government Procurement Reform Act, which says such should be bid out by the Philippine government, but is legal under the ODA Law, as amended).

Now the issue here is not the legality of the method of procurement. As is usual with government procurement, the main issue is the accusations of the padding of the project cost to accommodate commissions and kickbacks, and the supposed involvement of people who are in power who have allegedly used their influence to benefit from the project.

There is a difference between what is moral and what is legal.

Now when they say “Moderate their greed,” It usually means “reduce the project cost to more rational or reasonable levels.” But then in Philippine governance, it may usually mean something else. And this very phrase has helped spark controversy the more.

Happy researching!

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