Thanks to the Supreme Court, the rotten NBN deal has been put to a halt via a temporary restraining order.

The court issued the TRO in response to a petition by Joey de Venecia, a son of Speaker Jose de Venecia and owner of AHI, one of the “losing” bidders for the NBN. In petition, the younger De Venecia asked the court to order the government to produce the contract awarding the NBN to ZTE, a Chinese company.

NBN stands for National Broadband Network that seeks to put up a digital broadband network across the country for the exclusive use of national and local authorities. It would have cost the government US$330-million.

Critics claim that it is a product of an anomalous bidding process, corruption allegedly involving Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos and, more importantly, an gargantuan unnecessary expense.

Inquirer ran a three-part report on the NBN.