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Engineer Rodolfo Lozada Jr. had been “missing”
for about 40 hours before he resurfaced.
He, however, did not give details
on what really happened to him from the time he was reportedly
picked up by a group of unidentified men led by a police officer
past 4 p.m. Tuesday at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to the
time he gave a press conference around 2 a.m. of Thursday at De La
Salle Greenhills in San Juan City, Metro Manila. He had just arrived
from Hong Kong when he was reportedly “abducted.”
The Philippine National Police
owned up to his “abduction,” but only because, it said, Lozada
had supposedly requested police protection over supposed threat to
his life. The threat apparently arose from his being a key witness
to the controversial $330-million national broadband network deal
with China’s ZTE Corp.
At another press conference
Thursday, Environment Secretary Lito Atienza admitted to having sent
people to fetch Lozada from the airport. Like the national police,
Atienza said Lozada had requested police protection. He added that
he obliged Lozada, he being his subordinate at the government-owned
Philippine Forests Corp. National police chief Avelino Razon Jr. sat
at the press conference.
Nun protection
Lozada showed up at his press
conference accompanied by nuns. There, he gave details on the
involvement of Benjamin Abalos Sr., the resigned chairman of the
Commission on Elections, and a certain “FG” in the allegedly
corruption-tainted broadband deal.
Earlier, television video footage
showed Lozada being escorted down a flight of stairs by the nuns. It
was not clear from the footage from where he was being moved.
Apparently, he and his “rescuers” were coming out from a house
and proceeded to De La Salle Greenhills.
The press conference presented a
visibly tired, shaken, but apparently firm Lozada, who said the
broadband project started “sensibly” only for it to turn into a
“nightmare” after Abalos allegedly insisted on protecting his
“commissions on the project.”
Lozada would next show up in the
Senate, which took him in custody. The Senate will present him as a
key witness in another hearing on the scrapped broadband project.
De La Salle Greenhills, in a
statement, said providing sanctuary to Lozada and his family was a
matter of duty.
Its president, Brother Felipe
Belleza Jr., said concerns about the safety and security of the
Lozada children were “legitimate.”
“In view of legitimate concerns
about the safety and security of [the Lozada] children, four of whom
are students of De La Salle Greenhills, Jun and Maria Violeta Lozada
earlier requested the brothers for protection,” Belleza said. Jun
is the nickname of Lozada. Maria Violeta is his wife.
“We were convinced that it was
our duty as Christian educators to give sanctuary to the children
and their mother while Mr. Lozada was out of the country and that
threats to their safety still exist,” the school president added
in a letter read on dzBB radio on Thursday afternoon.
Belleza said on many occasions,
De La Salle had opened its doors to those in need of shelter and
care regardless of religious beliefs or political affiliations.
“We believe that this practice
takes on special meaning today as we give sanctuary and protection
to the Lozada children who are members of the La Sallian
community,” he added.
Belleza sought continued prayers
from the faithful for the well-being of the Lozada family, who he
said are “understandably going through a very difficult time.”
Two court petitions
The Supreme Court also on
Thursday acted on the two petitions—for writ of habeas corpus and
writ of amparo—filed before it by the Lozada family.
In a four-page resolution, it
ordered the respondents headed by President Gloria Arroyo and Razon
to answer within five days the habeas petition.
The High Court made the order
despite receiving reports that Lozada is now in the custody of the
Senate and no longer in the hands of the national police. Instead of
making the petition moot and academic, it decided to ask the
government to explain the alleged abduction of Lozada.
On the writ of amparo petition,
the Tribunal issued the writ and ordered Court of Appeals Presiding
Justice Conrado Vasquez Jr. to raffle off the case.
The Supreme Court decided to
consolidate both petitions and for the appellate court to hear the
same.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez
said Lozada can be charged with perjury for giving different
statements to the public. He made the statement after Lozada
admitted that he had signed an affidavit and other documents that
run contrary to his earlier statements.
--Jomar Canlas and Francis Earl A. Cueto
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