MANILA – In what appears to be a historic first, First Daughter Evangeline "Luli" Arroyo has waded into the intensifying fray over a $230 million broadband contract with China.

Luli acted to defend her father, First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, who was dragged into the fray when Joey de Venecia III, son of Speaker Jose de Venecia , told the Senate that Mike confronted him and ordered him to withdraw his company’s bid for the contract with China.

She said that Joey might not have been thinking clearly during the Senate hearing because of a previous problem with drug use. It was in the Senate hearing on the controversial deal that the Speaker’s son pointed to Mike Arroyo as the person who pointed his finger at his face and tell him to bug off the deal.

“Just because you failed in your business practices, don’t blame it on innocent people here. So it’s irritating but, I mean, what can we do? I don’t know if his old drug use affected his thinking, but ‘whatever. I mean, we just have to laugh these off," Luli said.

On allegations that her father went to Hong Kong to avoid a Senate inquiry, she said: “That’s again grasping at straws as thin as his (De Venecia III’s) hairline."

“My Dad and I, we were talking about several trips that we’re gonna do over the next couple of months," Luli, who was with her mother at the recent forum, said . “They (critics) don’t know the whole picture, because we do have our private lives. I mean they shouldn’t impute things they don’t know."

She said there would be no change in the way her mother runs the government but added that the Speaker could have problems with his son.

She said her mother doesn’t lose sleep despite the latest controversy.

“I think I get more irritated because she’s used to it (controversy). To me, it’s really frustrating that we’re doing so well and they’re looking for things that are not there so they just make up stories," Luli said.

Reacting to Luli’s tirade, De Venecia admitted having tried marijuana when he was 19 or 20, but expressed pride at having gone over the experience to become a successful businessman. He said Luli’s remarks were “personal attacks.”

“I understand her for taking the side of her father whom she thought could not possibly be involved in yet another corruption case,’ he told The STAR.  “They can take me to court,” he added.

Intensifying its attack on the Speakers son,  President Arroyo’s top lawyer said there is a strong case to pin down De Venecia III for graft for using his father’s influence in an attempt to bag the controversial national broadband network contract.

Presidential Chief Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol said that Republic Act 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, prohibits families and relatives of the President and other top officials, including the Speaker, from ?directly or indirectly getting, intervening, getting involved in government contracts. The ban also covers the vice president and the Senate president Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay has warned Speaker de Venecia that because he defended his son against the onslaught of Malacanang, he might be kicked out as Speaker of the House. He said representatives beholden to Arroyo might move to depose him from his post.

Joey, son and namesake of the Speaker, is co-founder and majority stockholder of Amsterdam Holdings Inc., which lost to the ZTE Corp. of China in the competition for the broadband project. ZTE’s proposal cost $329 million.

De Venecia said earlier the prohibition doesn’t cover projects undertaken through a build-operate-transfer (BOT) scheme.

“Whatever it is, BOT or what, you are trying to get a contract from the government. That is covered by the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices law.

No excuse,’ Apostol said.

But he said Malacanang would rather leave it to law enforcement agencies to file the appropriate case against the younger De Venecia.

He pointed out that the Ombudsman could initiate a criminal proceeding against De Venecia on its own without waiting for a formal complaint from any party.

De Venecia explained before the Senate earlier AHI’s effort to bag the contract and how Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos tried to bribe him out of the competition for the project with $10 million.

He also told the chamber how First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo pointed a finger to his face and ordered him to “back off.”

Mr. Arroyo’s spokesman Jesus Santos denied De Venecia’s allegations.

Santos said that Mr. Arroyo first encountered De Venecia by chance at the Wack Wack Golf & Country Club in Mandaluyong when he was playing golf with Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza.

Santos said that De Venecia was at Wack Wack to follow up his broadband proposal with Mendoza.

Senate Blue Ribbon committee chairman Alan Peter Cayetano said that a subpoena may be issued against Mr. Arroyo if he fails to respond to an invitation.

Faced with another controversy, President Arroyo hit her Administration’s critics for keeping the country ‘stuck in both the rut and rot of politicking."

She has ordered all Cabinet members involved in the controversial deal to appear before the Senate investigation on the deal.

“For them, good news notwithstanding, it’s bashing as usual,” she said of her critics. “They are men and women who peddle distrust. The bleating noises they make seek to drown out the humming sounds of the engines of our economy," she said.

President Arroyo is in danger of being impeached if she and her allies in the House of Representatives oust Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. ‘First, they are not certain of success. Second, a new attempt to remove the President from Malacanang through the impeachment process might succeed this time if the plot succeeds, and more so if it fails," Nueva Vizcaya Rep. Carlos Padilla said. Padilla is not allied with any bloc in the House.

“The Speaker has a sizeable following in the House that I think would stick with him and would not be swayed by the Palace," he added.

Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin, for his part, said it would be a political suicide to try to unseat the Speaker at this time.

“I don’t think anyone will stand up and challenge Joe now. I don’t know if this is nice to say, but Joe, you don’t usually associate him with moral causes. But in these days, to try to challenge Joe now means you want to suppress the truth," Locsin told reporters.