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Jun Lozada likened himself to a “Jedi” warrior
who is trying to resist the “dark side of the force”—a
reference to the blockbuster movie saga Star Wars.
Most Filipinos—except those in
the Outer Rim—will likely recognize Lozada as a star witness in
the Senate hearing on the aborted $330-million National Broadband
Network project. He came to the Senate on Friday with a small army
of nuns and De La Salle brothers, but some, like Sen. Miriam
Defensor-Santiago, appeared unmoved, even questioning Lozada’s
credibility.
But other than being a government
consultant and president of an obscure government corporation, who
is Lozada?
Rodolfo Noel “Jun” Lozada Jr.
was the technical consultant of his “friend,” former
director-general Romulo Neri of the National Economic and
Development Authority (NEDA). Neri is now chairman of the Commission
on Higher Education—a transfer some suspect is related to his
opposition to the broadband project.
Lozada graduated from the
University of Santo Tomas with a degree in electronics and
communications engineering. He is married and has three kids.
He later became an information
technology executive of Alcatel before he became Neri’s personal
consultant at NEDA. Alcatel is an Italian telecommunications
multinational, one of the world’s biggest industry players that
provides hardware, software and services to service providers, among
others.
Lozada first got involved with
government after he offered his services to Gen. Victor Corpus, then
chief of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines. Lozada was grateful for the general’s assistance at a
time when he was getting death threats in relation to the shooting
death of his brother by authorities.
That brother was one of
Lozada’s 13 siblings, a family with roots in the Bicol region.
Corpus pounced on Lozada’s
offer and showed him a thick document, a project study that was
later to evolved into the broadband project.
When Corpus retired, Lozada chose
to be appointed to the Philippine Forest Corp., referred to simply
as PhilForest, because it was to be an easy government job and was
far from the limelight. Lozada told the Senate on Friday he drafted
PhilForest’s corporate plans, a skill that caught Neri’s
attention.
Then in 2004, Lozada was
appointed as president and chief executive of PhilForest and was
involved in the propagation and planting of jatropha trees. But
apparently, he kept in touch with Neri when he was named NEDA chief.
A NEDA official confirmed Neri
got Lozada as a consultant for the broadband deal because of his
expertise in telecommunications. The source clarified that Lozada
was not an official consultant and that he was not drawing a salary
from NEDA.
Credibility questioned
During Friday’s hearing, Sen.
Miriam Defensor-Santiago questioned Lozada’s credibility, even
saying he could be charged with graft and corruption [under the
Anti-Corrupt] Practices Act for his testimony before the Senate
blue-ribbon committee.
She noted Lozada’s admission
that certain projects of the PhilForests, which Lozada headed were
implemented without public bidding and that a P5-million insurance
policy which he approved was paid for by the government firm. His
wife, Violet, was the insurance agent from Insular Life who brokered
the deal.
Santiago also questioned projects
awarded to Lozada’s brother and PhilForest’s importation of 35
goats from Australia costing P700,000—just to see if they could
eat grass or jatropha.
The senator cited records given
to her showing that PhilForest leased about 50 hectares of land in
Antipolo City to a private corporation that had Lozada and his wife
as representatives.
“It makes me doubt very much
whether I should take his testimony at face value because he is
accusing other people of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt
Practices Act when he himself admittedly is guilty of such
violation,” Santiago said after the hearing.
Lozada admitted to all the
questionable transactions brought up by Santiago, though. “I made
some mistakes which made me lose my respect for myself, but I will
lose all my respect for myself [if] I would go along with this NBN
project.”
Senate President Manuel Villar,
however, said Santiago’s questioning had no bearing on Lozado’s
testimony on the broadband project.
--Darwin G. Amojelar and Efren L. Danao
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