Joey de Venecia lauds father, shuns death threats

MANILA, Philippines - Businessman Joey de Venecia III congratulated his father, former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., for his testimony in the graft cases filed against former Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos in connection with the botched $329-million national broadband network (NBN) deal with China’s ZTE Corp.

“In addition to all his services to the nation, I take my hat off to my father, former Speaker De Venecia, for his courage in standing up for the truth. This is an important step in our efforts to make accountable those who abused power,” the younger De Venecia said.

The former speaker would appear as a prosecution witness. He earlier confirmed that then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo, and Abalos dined and played golf with officials of ZTE Corp. in Shenzhen, China in November 2006 and they later talked about the NBN project.

It was the younger De Venecia who exposed the NBN-ZTE scandal before the Senate. As a result the elder De Venecia lost his seat as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

“As I have done in the past, I am willing to testify against the perpetrators of this robbery against the Filipino people. When I exposed the ZTE scandal, I had to take security measures at my own expense, because of threats to my life,” the younger De Venecia said.

De Venecia III, now secretary- general of PDP-Laban, said that he has received new death threats with the filing of the graft cases against the Arroyos.

“If the intention of the death threats is to deter me from testifying then they are mistaken. I have sacrificed before, I am willing to do that again,” he added.