vonjobi: wow, congratulations! kelan ang trip? i hope i'll be around when you come. had a good time with diosa last...
Keith Bacongco: Knowing Nograles and his Big Boss...garapalan na lang talaga.
Vinia Datinguinoo Mukherjee: Congratulations, PCIJ! Mabuhay kayo!
Lead Philippines: But without credible mass media there, what is left to protect the people..?
vonjobi: it's juned sOniDo.

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hopeless_race : Lets not just focus sa mga malversation of funds, sa mga overpricing..ating pagtuunan ng atensyon ang diskarte ng mga politiko na umuutang ng bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno."Small time" ang ibang pamamaraan ng pangungurakot kumpara sa pag-utang sa gobyerno ng bilyon na tunay ngang masasabing "pinaka big-time" at wala pang sabit.
hopeless_race : Mukhang tikom ang bibig ng lahat pagdating sa diskarte ng mga politiko sa pagutang ng mga bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno na tinatakbuhan. Itong pamamaraan na ito ang tunay na kumakain ng malaking porsyento ng ating national budget batay na din sa sinasabi ng world bank.
hopeless_race : Pakisilip naman po ang mga utang ni Villar sa BSP, ang mga utang nila RAMON JACINTO, RONNIE ZAMORA, JOE DE VENECIA at madami pang ibang mga pulitiko. Iilan lamang yan sa mga nababanggit sa balita na may mga malalaking utang sa gobyerno.
hopeless_race : Nagmimistulang "small time" lamang ang malversation of funds kumpara sa laki ng kinakamal ng mga umuutang sa gobyerno. At ito ay malinaw na natatakbuhan dahil hindi nga naman pwede makulong ang may-ari ng kumpanya sa pagkaka-utang lamang. Tunay na mga tuso at magagaling sa batas itong mga politiko natin. Masasabi ko na malamang lahat ng mga politiko ganito ang diskarte...wala pang kulong.
hopeless_race : PCIJ pkitingnan naman po ang mga gaya ni Villar na my malaking utang sa Gobyerno pero tinatakbuhan. Magtatayo ng kumpanya at uutang ng bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno ng walang balak bayaran. Tunay ngang walang nakukulong sa utang...ito ang prinsipyo ginagamit ng mga politiko ntin kaya nakakapagtaka kung san napupunta ang daang bilyong pera ng gobyerno.
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?
hopeless_race : Its sad that we pinoys are blind to the fact of what had happened in mendiola and hacienda luisita. Ang tanong..bakit ang media ay hindi manlang matackle ang ganitong usapin? Takot ba sila kay cory at danding?
hopeless_race : Wilkins" brand, for P1.4 billion.-1999 Sugarland Multi-Food Corp. for P2.9 billion 2001- Purefoods Corp P7 billion P60 billion Coca-Cola ... See More 2002- Cosmos Bottling Corp. from RFM Corp. for P14.1 billion October 2008- GSIS' shares in Meralco worth PHP30 Billion. December 2008- country's biggest oil refiner, Petron Corporation. international company shopping spree: Australian boutique brewer J. Boag and Son for A$96 million in 2000. $97 million for Thai Amarit Brewery Ltd $35.5 mi
hopeless_race : Gud am..glad to be back.
jr_lad : rip mr. alecks pabico. you'll be greatly missed!
sevens21 : Dati input mo lng name at SSS ID makukuha mo agad STATIC INFO...
sevens21 : tawag ka sa HOTLINE nila walang ANSWER grrr we need pa namn ng static info SSS Gising!!!
sevens21 : Gawa naman po kayo ng article about SSS. Pangit ng site nila dali ma blocked ng account
guest_899 : we must check the background of each potential candidates to avoid having another big mistake like GMA
guest_899 : congratulations to PCIJ, more power and God Bless !
jazzymuver : how did Arroyo swallow that kind of things!! how come that she just spend the money our countrymen for her own sake!!
guest_3664 : i would be glad if u can include the investigation of the manner public officials announce infra projects as per COA regulation. It is frustrating to see their faces on the tarpaulin instead of the prescribed information like name of project, date of implementation,amount of contract, source/s of fund, among other things. This is very rampant here in Marikina. Thanks and more power on your noble endeavors. We need people like you to have make our country great again.
jhanz_08 : im making research on R.A 9136...with rgards to the privatization of NPC..could someone out there can let me understand more bout this matter?why was monopoly dismantled?email me..jhanycem@yahoo.com...thanks much
erika marie : P.S.:) my paper is due next week and i do hope someone could provide me these reports coming from reliable resources thank you ulit.
erika marie : P.S.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study regarding political killings in the philippines. could someone out there please send me human rights reports under Aquino and Ramos administration. you could send it at my email: erikamariet@yahoo.com your response would surely be very much appreciated. thank you everyone. god bless.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study for my paper regarding political killings in the philippines. i noted that there are no human rights reports during the Aquino and Ramos administration. could someone out there please send me reports regarding these matter? i do hope these reports came from reliable resources you could send it in my email; erikamariet@yahoo.comyour response would surely be appreciated. thanks everyone. god bless.
jayson bourne : gusto ko po maging member ng PCIJ, panu po ba? may application po ba? sana mapadalhan nyo ako ng info sa email ko... www.jboxpenshoppe@yahoo.com
jayson bourne : cory is OK, but kris & Noynoy sensationalize masyado...
guest_9891 : LABAN pa rin!
meow : boycotts worked during marcos years. how about doing it now against the businesses of the con-ass congressmen?
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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

[...] chronology of events on how the prestigious institution got entangled in the issue. The Daily PCIJ uploads the testimonies of government officials who denied that they tried to prevent the witness from [...]

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