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News reports last Wednesday mentioned the plans of
Senate star witness Rodolfo Lozada Jr. to leave the country “for
good.”
A visibly disappointed Jun Lozada
told reporters that his decision to settle in the United States, if
we heard right, is due to his desire to give his family a chance at
a normal life. His children can no longer stand the heavy security,
he added.
He hinted at other reasons, of
course.
Lozada’s announcement naturally
triggered numerous speculations. Common is the view that Lozada is
seriously disappointed although the kibitzer community is split over
the major source of his disappointment.
Prevalent is the view that Lozada
cannot stomach the recent turn of events in media. The rice shortage
and now the row over Meralco and other power issues have all but
erased the dispute over the proposed National Broadband Network (NBN)
from the public mind.
True, there is a new move to
revive the NBN issue, but the prospective resurrection also promises
to bring in a new, more controversial witness that Iloilo
Vice-Governor Rolex Suplico threatens to surface.
The guess is that Lozada had
expected stellar media billing for a much longer time, perhaps until
the political pot begins to percolate for the 2010 polls. Maybe he
had been ill-advised.
He should have been told that
media spectacles have a shelf life—a brief one. Unless, of course,
the source of the spectacle has the talent and wherewithal to keep
cooking up novelties that can maintain public interest.
Another thing: the longer Lozada
stayed in the limelight, the better the public was able to grasp the
real score. The view is that Lozada’s “search for truth” has
shed its sanctimonious vestments and bared itself as nothing more
than a quest for sustained public exposure.
Has the public finally realized
that an authentic search for truth should involve either a judicial
process or a multi-sided public debate? People now understand that
Lozada’s tearful monologues are not exactly the way “truth”
can be ferreted out.
The impression is that Lozada is
angling for a resurrection of public sympathy—for himself, and
himself alone. Is he waiting for a clamor for him to stay in the
country and “continue to fight for the truth”?
Lozada did make a similar threat,
remember? He threatened to abandon his Catholic faith when the
Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines issued a pastoral
statement that likewise disappointed the star witness?
Other observers are wondering
whether or not Lozada simply felt used by the parties that sought to
benefit from the NBN controversy. Now, he is feeling abandoned after
the propaganda value of his media appearances became irrelevant to
the political interests that thrust him into the limelight.
Politicians are well-versed in
the complexities of public interest. Once a media novelty loses its
luster, they just let it fade in obscurity.
Lozada claims that it is no
longer safe for him and his family to remain in the country. This
appears to be the least credible of the reasons for leaving that he
has enumerated. There are serious doubts that anybody would want to
do the Lozadas physical harm.
Remember Sandra Cam who took on
practically the entire Arroyo clan with allegations of jueteng, i.e.
numbers-racket, payoffs?
Like Lozada, Cam had her
proverbial 15 minutes of media glory when she ladled out her
accusations before a Senate panel. Many thought her allegations
against the Arroyos were damaging.
But did Cam threaten to leave the
country after the novelty of her media appearances waned? She is
still very much around. She was last seen heartily cheering on her
son’s basketball team at the recent Palarong Pambansa in Puerto
Princesa where she also dined with the province’s top politicians.
Cam had no bodyguards. She was
reportedly with ex-PBA player EJ Feihl, but he was not there to
provide security. The conclusion: Cam is able to move around
unafraid even if she had openly tangled with the First Family.
So, why is Lozada in a hurry to
leave the country? Are the nuns getting tired of acting as his
bodyguards and are now begging off from further security duty? Or is
Cam the one with balls?
Lozada should just quietly go if
he wishes to do so. He should make no spectacle about his threatened
departure from the country.
He will not be missed. 
dansoy26@yahoo.com
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