At the same time, Dante Madriaga, a former consultant of ZTE on the NBN deal, said of the alleged $200 million contract overprice, half would have gone to a “Filipino group” and the other to the “Chinese group. The first tranche was $1 million released in August 2006 (for representation); the second was $10 million in March 2007 as success fee after the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) approved the project; and the third was $30 million after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo attended the signing of the contract in Boao, China, and this amount was to be used “in aid of elections” or support for administration candidates in the May 2007 national elections. At $130 million, Madriaga said the actual project cost was only $50 million, with ZTE and Filipino group getting $40 million each. To match Arescom’s specifications, Madriaga said ZTE raised the project cost to $189 million, with $109 million in kickbacks split evenly between the Chinese firm and the Filipino group. The project cost was raised a third time to $269 million to increase the coverage with the kickbacks rising to $140 million ($70 million each for ZTE and the Filipino group). Read More