MANILA, Philippines—He may be the President’s husband but Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo has never taken advantage of his status to enrich himself.

In an affidavit he submitted to the Ombudsman in response to allegations linking him to the scuttled $329-million NBN-ZTE contract, Arroyo said: “I have never taken advantage of my marriage to the President by requesting or receiving any gift or advantage from anyone dealing with the government.”

The Ombudsman two weeks ago cleared President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband of involvement in the allegedly onerous deal that would have established a national broadband network in the country in cooperation with ZTE Corp. of China.

In dismissing the allegations against him, the Ombudsman said the evidence against the First Gentleman was weak, in effect finding merit in his counter-affidavit which called the complaint against him “fabricated.”

Three groups of complainants immediately appealed those findings.

The Office of the Ombudsman had consistently denied requests for a copy of Arroyo’s affidavit, filed in March 2008, but the Philippine Daily Inquirer was able to obtain a copy from one of the complainants after news of the ruling came out.

Nothing but insinuations

In the 23-page affidavit, Arroyo said the complaint against him “contains nothing but insinuations, speculations and false assumptions” and was “bereft of direct and competent evidence linking me to any alleged anomalies.”

He also said he had tried to avoid publicity since his wife became president.

“I have declined any government post to avoid any impression that I meddle in governance,” he said.

“I have attempted to live as private a life as is possible given the circumstances, limiting my public exposure to my being the presidential spouse and helping her with my privately funded poverty-alleviation programs,” he said.

At the Senate hearings on the aborted deal, which the Ombudsman said it considered in its findings, businessman Jose de Venecia III said that Arroyo had told him to “back off” from the broadband project. De Venecia’s company was bidding for the project.

But in his affidavit, Arroyo said the incident “never happened.”

“I never pointed a finger at De Venecia and I never told him to ‘back off!’” Arroyo said the term was not in his vocabulary: “I am not accustomed to American colloquialisms.”

He, however, admitted meeting De Venecia “accidentally” in a golf club in “early 2007.”

In his affidavit, he said it was De Venecia who should be charged.

The Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM), led by former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, filed last week a motion for partial reconsideration of the junking of the graft charges against Ms Arroyo and her husband.

Eyewitness account

Whistle-blower Rodolfo Lozada Jr. and Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros also appealed the ruling, saying that Lozada’s testimony “constitutes an eyewitness account of respondent (Mike) Arroyo’s involvement in the ZTE project.”

Lozada had testified that he heard former Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos talking to Mike Arroyo over the phone about the NBN-ZTE deal.

In his motion for reconsideration, private lawyer Ernesto Francisco Jr., another complainant, said that Arroyo should be charged not only with graft but also for violating the Code of Conduct for presidential relatives.

The Ombudsman had recommended that charges be filed only against Abalos and Social Security System president Romulo Neri. Both have also appealed the findings.