Former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo's lawyer said Monday that summoning his client to the Sandiganbayan trial on the cancelled National Broadband Network (NBN) project with Chinese firm ZTE Corp. would be a waste of time because he had no hand in the project.

Lawyer Ruy Rondain said Mr. Arroyo has no personal knowledge in the $329-million NBN contract with ZTE Corp. that was cancelled by former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2008, amidst allegations of bribery among top officials.

"It's just a waste of time because he has no personal knowledge of it so what he'll just say there is 'I don't know'," Rondain said.

The prosecutors in the graft charges filed against former National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) director general Romulo Neri said they want to summon the Arroyos to testify against Neri to determine the extent of Neri's authority in approving the NBN-ZTE project.

Neri said in Senate hearings on the NBN-ZTE project that former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos, who is also accused of graft in connection with the NBN-ZTE project, had tried to bribe him to approve the project in favor of ZTE Corp.

Abalos has denied the allegations that he tried to bribe Neri, saying that the Chinese government had control of which Chinese firm would get the NBN contract because the project would be funded by a Chinese loan with concessional interest rates.

Neri said he had reported to Mrs. Arroyo the bribe attempt made by Abalos, but he invoked executive privilege in the Senate hearings to refuse to say what Mrs. Arroyo's response was to his report of bribery.

Mrs. Arroyo's spokeswoman, Elena Bautista-Horn, said Mrs. Arroyo's lawyers would wait for the official subpoena of the Sandiganbayan before commenting on whether she would testify against Neri.