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To the Senate, the human rights of Rodolfo Lozada Jr.
may have been abused when he was “abducted” Tuesday, apparently
by the government’s security forces.
Malacañang said it could not
have possibly authorized the national police to snatch Lozada as
alleged, because there had been “no abduction” in the first
place.
Lozada’s family, meanwhile, has
filed petitions for a writ of habeas corpus and a writ of amparo in
his behalf before the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The Senate will investigate the
incident as a possible case of violation of Lozada’s civil
liberties, Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. said Wednesday. He
added that the inquiry will be different from that into the National
Broadband Network project because this involves human rights. Lozada
is a key witness in the Senate probe of that aborted $330-million
project.
Villar demanded a full accounting
by airport authorities on the “abduction” of Lozada at the Ninoy
Aquino International Airport. His demand came as the whereabouts of
Lozada remained a mystery.
In police custody
Director Genernal Avelino Razon,
chief of the Philippine National Police, said Lozada was under the
custody of the Police Security Protection Office. But Sen. Alan
Peter Cayetano, chairman of the Senate blue-ribbon committee, said
his men who went to Camp Crame, the police headquarters in Quezon
City, said the office had denied having Lozada in its custody.
Villar appeared incredulous at
Razon’s claim that Lozada’s family had asked for police
protection. “How can that be when I was talking with Lozada’s
wife, and she was very distraught over her husband’s
whereabouts?” the Senate president asked.
Villar also pointed out that
members of Lozada’s family were waiting for Lozada at the arrival
area with some senators, media and members of the Senate’s Office
of the Sergeant-at-Arms, so they could not have possibly asked for
police protection for Lozada.
Lozada’s brother Arthur
appeared on television decrying the “abduction” done right at
the airport. Lozada arrived on board a Cathay Pacific flight from
Hong Kong at 4:40 p.m. Tuesday.
Malacañang said the national
police taking Lozada in its custody is a standard procedure in
response to his request for protection.
“First of all, there’s no
abduction,” Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said. “It’s a
police operational matter, and we cannot say that [President Gloria
Arroyo] authorized that [‘abduction’] just because it was
carried out by the [national police].”
Life in danger
Ermita added that he was informed
by the police that Lozada’s brother Arthur had requested security
before he arrived in the country because of an alleged threat to his
life.
“Upon his arrival, there were
personnel who met him there [airport], brought him out because of
the threat to his life,” the Executive Secretary said. “Last
night, he spoke with his family. They knew all along that he was
with police officials. I understand from General Razon [that] he
even brought a document [to] the airport attesting to the fact that
he [had] requested [the presence of] security forces,” the
Executive Secretary said.
When asked whether Malacañang
will investigate the “abduction” of Lozada, Ermita said there is
no need for any investigation “at this moment.” He added,
“Just [what] I’ve told you, [Razon] announced that he [had]
acted on the request by Lozada, so I hope all things are clear, and
I reiterate that there’s no need for an investigation.”
ZTE hearing
Ermita said it is up to Lozada
and his lawyers to decide whether to appear in Senate hearings on
the scrapped national broadband deal. “I understand that Mr.
Lozada has a company of lawyers, therefore, I’m sure he could be
given pointers. I heard that he [had] prepared a written affidavit
regarding his position. He could be given proper advice before
attending Senate hearings.”
Ask the police
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye
said it also is up to the national police to provide information to
the public after admitting that Lozada is in their custody.
“It would be better if you
asked [Razon] about it. We monitored that the police said they are
holding Lozada in its custody,” Bunye told reporters. “So as to
the details, you better ask [Razon].”
But he clarified that Lozada was
not taken by the police “against his will.” He said the former
consultant to the technical aspects of the broadband project had
been able to talk to his family.
‘Abuse of power’
Whether Lozada went voluntarily,
opposition leader and Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay said, will not
detract from the Arroyo administration mustering “the kind of
arrogance over the years in power.”
“The action is clearly an abuse
of power and a violation of civil liberties,” he added in a
statement.
The Senate team sent to the
international airport was supposed to serve a warrant of arrest on
Lozada for failing to attend a hearing of the blue-ribbon committee
on the broadband project, but Lozada never came out of the arrival
area. Lozada later texted his brother that he was accosted at the
airport and taken to the tarmac where he was made to board a waiting
vehicle without passing through Customs and Immigration.
Villar chided retired Gen. Angel
Atutubo, assistant deputy for security of the Manila International
Airport Authority, for saying that the Senate team did not
coordinate with airport authorities.
“I don’t know if those
persons studied their law,” he said. “It is very clear that we
have a warrant of arrest, and they could have talked with us for an
orderly serving at the airport. But it seemed that General Atutubo
was more interested in the other persons who met Mr. Lozada.”
Villar added that the national
police and airport authorities should explain why they prevented the
Senate from serving the warrant on Lozada. The witness often sat in
place of Romulo Neri in discussions of the broadband project in the
Senate hearings. Neri, the former socio-economic planning secretary,
was to have been served another arrest warrant, but the Supreme
Court on Tuesday stopped it.
More questions
Sen. Benigno Aquino 3rd, one of
the senators who went to the airport on Tuesday, said it took
Atutubo five hours to announce that it was not he who took Lozada
but a certain Senior Police Officer 4 Roger Valeroso. Aquino noted
that Camp Crame had denied that anybody by that name was in the
police ranks.
“If Valeroso does not exist,
then where did Angel Atutubo get his name?” Aquino asked. “By
whose authority was he given access to the airport tarmac? By whose
authority and on what grounds did the [national police] take Lozada
in their custody?”
He also questioned why it took
the police more than 12 hours to announce that police personnel had
taken custody of Lozada.
“I cannot think of any other
explanation for Mr. Atutubo and the [national police’s] prolonged
period of silence other than that those hours were used to concoct
what appears to be a badly written official story on the fate of Mr.
Lozada,” Aquino said.
Senate President Pro Tempore
Jinggoy Estrada said the case of Lozada might go the way of Juancho
“Udong” Mahusay, a supposed witness in the Jose Pidal account
allegedly belonging to President Aroyo’s husband, Jose Miguel
“Mike” Arroyo.
Estrada explained that Mahusay,
who was “kidnapped” in Tagaytay City, later recanted his
testimony.
Sen. Manuel Roxas 2nd also
refused to buy the police claim that Lozada’s family had sought
police protection. He said Razon should furnish the Senate a copy of
the purported letter.
“This is an absurd situation,
considering that the airport is a high-security zone, where people
are subject to identity and baggage checks of the most stringent
kind,” Roxas said.
Senate Majority Leader Francis
Pangilinan said Lozada’s disappearance showed that the downgrading
of Philippine airports by the US Federal Aviation Administration was
justified.
In the habeas corpus petition
filed Wednesday, respondents are Razon, Atutubo, Valeroso, Air Force
chief Lt. Gen. Pedrito Cadungog, Assistant Deputy Manager for
Operations at the airport authority Octavio Lina, and Presidential
Security Group chief Brig. Gen. Romeo Prestoza.
The Supreme Court is set to
raffle the case and could decide on it this week.
--Efren L. Danao And Angelo S.
Samonte With Jomar Canlas, Anthony Vargas, James Konstantin Galvez
And Jonathan Hicap
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