A Philippine public official at the center of a major bribe scandal involving a state-owned Chinese company resigned yesterday amid growing controversy over a US$330 million Internet broadband deal.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos said his resignation was not an admission of guilt but was intended to spare Comelec from further controversy over the deal.
Abalos said he had not discussed his decision with Philippine President Gloria Arroyo and said his resignation would "negate the accusation that this administration is out to protect me and my incumbency."
Arroyo suspended the project on Sept. 22 as the controversy threatened to implicate her husband in the deal.
Interior secretary Ronaldo Puno congratulated Abalos for his decision, saying "he's thinking about the institution."
He denied Abalos, considered an ally of Arroyo's, was resigning as a "sacrificial lamb" to save the administration from being further dragged into the controversy.
Last week, a former Cabinet secretary told a Senate hearing that Abalos tried to bribe him to ensure that the US$330 million broadband contract would go to ZTE Corp.
This echoed accusations by a rival bidder that ZTE had won the contract partly through Abalos's brokering.
In light of the accusations an impeachment complaint was filed against Abalos in the House of Representatives.
Abalos has denied any guilt and accused the Senate of treating him unfairly.
"I am willing to face any and all charges that would be filed against me," Abalos said, adding that his resignation showed he was not using the Comelec office to shield himself.
He also said his "crusade" to clear his name would continue and his lawyer said he would be filing damage suits against those who accused him.
Abalos, a former local politician, has long been a controversial figure in Philippine politics and has been accused of using his position to help benefit certain candidates.
The broadband deal with ZTE -- signed by Arroyo in April in Hainan, China -- was to set up a national broadband network for the exclusive use of the Philippine government and its agencies.
But it was suspended after allegations in the Philippine media and the country's Senate of supposed government incompetence, corruption and nepotism.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of