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hopeless_race : Sana itreat naman po ng media ang hacienda luisita at mendiola massacre na parang MAGUINADANAO MASSACRE. Ipublicized ang mga katotohanan at ipakita sa tao ang karumaldumal na pinaggagawa sa mga farmers dun. Untouchable po ba sila cory at danding at hindi magawang batikusin ng media about these two massacres?
hopeless_race : Kapag napaguusapan ang mendiola at hacienda luisita massacre ay parang walang nangyari at parang hindi big deal. Anu po ba ang pinagkaiba ng dalawang nabanggit na massacre sa maguindanao massacre?
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An orgy of denials

Posted by: Isa Lorenzo | February 11, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Filed under: Congress Watch, Governance, In the News, Podcasts

RODOLFO Noel ‘Jun’ Lozada Jr. was not abducted when he arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. He told many people that he did not want to attend the Senate hearing on the NBN-ZTE scandal and asked them to help him. So said the phalanx of current and former government officials that attended the second Senate hearing featuring the key witness in the scrapped broadband deal.

Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) general manager Alfonso Cusi said that based on their investigation, records and closed circuit television recording, Lozada was not forcibly abducted. The latter was able to move around freely. The men who were with him were not armed, and they were wearing identification cards.

The request to secure Lozada came from Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza, who said that he called Philippine National Police chief Avelino Razon Jr. Police Security and Protection Office (PSPO) second-in-command Paul Mascariñas was eventually ordered to assemble a team.

During the hearing, Mascariñas admitted that he was not informed as to the exact nature of the threat against Lozada. Nevertheless, Mascariñas’s team was able to coordinate with the NAIA security to “escort” Lozada, which the Senate sergeant-at-arms failed to do.

Mascariñas did not know who Lozada was. It was Rodolfo Valeroso, a retired master sergeant and a member of the PNP’s aviation security group whom Mascariñas handpicked to be part of the team, who identified Lozada and picked him up as he stepped off the plane.

“Let it be clear that there was no kidnapping or abduction, the PSPO provided security for Lozada at Lozada’s request. Lozada went with his own free will, was free to leave anytime, and never asked PSPO to let him go,” maintained Razon.

Listen to the testimonies of Cusi, Atienza, and Razon.

Lozada insisted that he never asked for police protection, nor did he willingly go with Mascariñas’s team. He was also able to exit the airport without passing through the immigration counter, despite being on the Bureau of Immigration’s watch list.

Based on Mascariñas’s testimony, after his team secured Lozada, they drove around because they had no instructions about where to take him.

“I did not feel that they were my protectors,” said Lozada, adding that if the men were protecting him, they would have told him their names and where they were going. None of the men also bothered to inform members of Lozada’s family, who were waiting for him at the airport, that Lozada was in their custody.

Aside from Atienza, Lozada also confided in former presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor, who is a personal friend. After hearing of Lozada’s financial troubles, Defensor gave him P50,000, an amount that Lozada later returned to the former presidential chief of staff during the hearing. Defensor denied that he offered Lozada money to say that he was not abducted, although he eventually admitted that he did advise Lozada to hold a press conference and say that he was not kidnapped.

Listen to Defensor’s testimony.

“Lagi lang hong tatlo yung request ko (I always have three requests),” said Lozada. “Ayokong pumunta sa Senado. Yung death threat paki patigil na lang. Pagpunta ko sa Senado, hindi ako makakapagsinungaling (I didn’t want to go to the Senate. Please stop the death threats. When I testify before the Senate, I won’t be able to lie).”

Lozada stood by his earlier testimony, despite a string of denials from the government officials whom the Senate invited to attend the hearing. Palace secretary for special concerns Remedios Poblador was the sole official mentioned by Lozada who did not attend the hearing.

Atienza meanwhile denied that he had ever talked to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo about Lozada.

“I did not instruct him to go abroad or to Hong Kong, I did not prepare his travel papers, nor did I prepare his flight arrangements,” said Manuel Gaite, deputy executive secretary for legal affairs.

“That’s a stupid thing to say, I didn’t say that,” said lawyer Antonio Bautista, of Lozada’s claim that he was coaxed to sign an affidavit for “the comfort of Malacañang.” Bautista said that he became Lozada’s lawyer through a third-party arrangement, after Gaite told him that Lozada needed legal representation to evade the Senate hearing. Lozada said, however, that Bautista was never his “counsel of choice.”

Razon later admitted that Lozada’s handwritten request for protection was made after he had arrived in Manila. During the hearing, Atienza asserted that he was telling the truth. The other officials also tried to refute Lozada’s statements. Lozada told ANC’s Pinky Webb during a break in the hearing that the statements of the government officials were half-truths, as shown by their difficulty in answering clarificatory questions.

All of the witnesses made their statements under oath. But their conflicting testimonies reveal continuing attempts to cover up the truth behind the NBN-ZTE deal.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 11th, 2008 and is filed under Congress Watch, Governance, In the News, Podcasts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 people have left comments

This is wrong, Mr. Lozada has nothing to hide. Instead he got fetch by a John Do person.All of the accusation he made its true,, they juke him,having somebody to pick you up unknowingly is scary if ur just a regular Manila Bussines man, what they make sign this, asfar as i know they made him sign three kind of document or more,By doing that to him, already made a statement to the public that he’s being handled now by the government(his being uphold by the oppositions&will or suffer the consiquences).he sign them document to make it all fair for the President…Ur story is not believable coz people already know the fact that who ever pick him up that day made him sign this document that ur pertaining to,they could have gave u this signed paperight after he sign it, it would be more believing ,,,this case is going nowhere but to milk it(gatasan)its been people…make them live in fear or make them believe that opposing to the president is more like a death wish or just go along with it for the milking process, many people are in this kind of situation suggest go along, ucant blame ur self,UR ONE FINE BUSSINES MAN U DID THE BEST NOT 2 THEM… BLAME IT ALL WITH MR NERI… PEACE BROTHER MY PRAYER IS ON U

jimpot wrote on February 12, 2008 - 3:00 am | Visit Link

WHAT A PITY;

I am a trial lawyer in the Philippines for 19 years and if you have that period of time interacting with witnesses in court, you can easily develop the knack of seizing up whether a witness is performing an act or telling the truth.

I can say that Mr. Jun Lozada’s testimony in the senate was not forthright and not spontaneous; and the sudden change in the tone and the intonation of some of his answers reflected that those questions had been actually given to him before the hearing, specially those questions coming from Senator Villar and Senator Escudero, but I cannot say that he was entirely lying.

Mr Lozada acted like a consummate Chinese businessman and looked at his encounter with the members of the Senate purely on a “profit-loss” proposition. That he decided to testify in the Senate because of some sense of patriotism is pure baloney, or hogwash as you can call it more appropriately.

If his testimony becomes a pivotal point in bringing down the administration of GMA, he becomes the next NEDA Director of the next administration and if not, he could become a big political figure in Bicol. The Bicolano’s patented style of creating some media frenzy by creating trouble then run for elective position after that is reminiscent of the Gregorio Honasan and Antonio Trillanes capers.

That he is a fraud would not matter anyway because the electorate does not know how to distinguish the villain from the heroes.

But let us examine Mr. Lozada more closely. He is agreeable that Chairman Abalos takes only $65 million in kickback in the ZTE project because according to him “hindi masyadong malaki ang bukol”. He was actually telling us that the bigger the “bukol” the chances that “bukol” being noticed by the public is great, but the $65 million may not be transparent to the public and therefore they can get away with it. Mr. Lozada is not agreeable to grand “thievery” because the public will notice it, he was agreeable only to moderate thievery so they can continue robbing the people little by little without being noticed.

And where did Mr. Lozada get the idea that a $65 million kickback is only a “small bukol? Jeeeeh!! , to use my daughter’s expression. Or was he not agreeable with the $130 million kickback for Chairman Abalos because the “profit” for his friend, Joey De Venecia would be jeopardized?

And Mr. Lozada was the perfect con artist with regards to small thievery. His “mea culpa” in the Senate does nothing to improve his credibility. He thought that he could not outsmart Senator Santiago and thus admitted that he has his own share of guilt too, but not in proportion of an NBA League, but only on an “intramural” category. He was consistent in his position that robbing the Philippine treasury little by little will be less risky and unnoticeable and more profitable in the end because “hindi mabubuking”.

I was hoping that Senator Santiago would follow-up the question about the P700,000.00 cost of 15 goats from Australia which was imported by Mr. Lozada’s company, to find out if the imported goat could feed on local grass with the question why did it take him to import 15 goats at that price when they can get only one or two if the objective is to find out if the “mestiso” goat can feed on local grass.

By the way, Senator Santiago has achieved something which the dirty department of the military had failed to achieve. She was able to put a nail on Lozada’s coffin without bloodletting. The poor guy is dead as far as credibility and honor is concerned to those who really seek for the truth, but for the demagogue like Mr. Lozada and the millions of our “kababayan”, he is a symbol of honesty and good governance… What a pity.

jcc wrote on February 12, 2008 - 11:59 pm | Visit Link

…on comment of jcc!

Akmang-akma ang title mo..WHAT A PITY!
And to think na with your 19-years experience as trial lawyer……..yes WHAT A PITY…for us pipol to have your kinda trial lawyer that you are!
Your comment does not spoke of your being such….am wondering if you really are…a lawyer!

bongmabangis wrote on February 13, 2008 - 11:45 pm | Visit Link

argumentum ad hominem… bzzzzzzz.

jcc wrote on February 16, 2008 - 9:55 am | Visit Link

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Global Voices Online » Philippines: A Tale of Corruption and Bribery wrote on January 8, 2010 - 12:47 pm | Visit Link