abashet: SONA 28 July 2008.

Taken at approximately 545am today. Feb 7, 2008. 

Crucial witness to the scandal-ridden National Broadband Network deal, Rodolfo "Jun" Lozada finally gets some rest from the tornado he was in.

Making a public narration of his inter-actions with former-Comelec Commissioner Ben Abalos, Jun Lozada flew home from HK to testify before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.  Lozada narrates that Abalos kept insisting for him to tweak deals on the NBN transactions between ZTE-China and the Philippine Government.  As an IT consultant, Engineer Lozada stated that this deal should be done through bidding of private companies but Abalos, according to Lozada, kept insisting otherwise.  So ang nangyari, naging government loan ang arrangement dito. (this loan was signed in China a few months after -- witnessed by President Arroyo herself)  

An additional (approx) 130Million USD was added to the project cost.  Abalos was to keep a huge kick-back from this deal. "protektahin natin ang 130Million ko..."-Abalos)  Lozada said in his statement, "When I quit the project, the project cost was $262 million. So it was approved. I don’t know what happened then. I’m not imputing anything now. But when it was approved, it was already approved at $329 million."

On the day he was supposed to testify before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, Lozada flew to HK to avoid it.  Subsequently, Sen. Enrile moved that a warrant of arrest be given out to Lozada for him to show up and narrate to the people what he knew while working with the project group in charge of the NBN-ZTE deal.  After a few days, Lozada got a phonecall from Atienza saying that he should just come back to the Philippines but they will take care of him. (whatever that means) Right when he flew in from HongKong, Lozada was sneaked out by men who claimed to be sent by DENR Sec. Atienza. (Atienza later denies that he sent this order saying perhaps his name was just used) Lozada said his family was waiting for him outside but the men insisted in taking him anyway. Fearing for his life, he went with them and they drove him to the outskirts of Manila. They just drove around the SLEX, the C5 and finally they dropped him off to meet his family. According to Lozada, the men received orders thru a phonecall or a radio transmission that said, "Masyado nang mainit sa media, ihatid nyo na lang siya sa pamilya niya."  After realizing that Jun was not going to come out from the airport after his flight, naturally his family filed official complaints and was covered by the media as his wife, Violet gave her impassioned plea to surface her husband.

He finally got in touch with the religious groups (the combined association of religious orders) and requested for safety. Glad that he's safe now, Lozada told me this morning that he truly feared for his life when the men took him from the tube so he just followed them out. After a presscon at the La Salle Greenhills chapel with Bro Armin Luistro, FSC  (President of the La Salle schools) he left for the Senate surrounded by nuns of different religious orders. He said all that he had to say. 

Everyone gaunt from fatigue, we convoyed the Senate's Sgt-at-Arms van that picked him up from the LSGH presscon. I was able to go all the way into the room that held him first, (another blog entry for how I managed to do that) we were escorted deep into the Senate building, far from the mob of the media.  We were met by Senators Cayetano, then Aquino and 2007 FilmFest best actor Jinggoy Estrada.

In any case, he sat down on the couch, ate quietly, watched himself on TV while quietly saying, "...sorry ah low-batt na ako."  

I asked him what he wanted to tell the young people while he's going through this.  He said, "Wag niyong papayagan mangyari ang mga ganito............mahalin ninyo ang bayan...at ang bayan ay hindi lang iisang pamilya...basta ...wag papayagan ito...wag...naku, pagod na ako..."

I asked the staff of Sen Cayetano to dim the lights of his office and lower the volume of the TV as I knew most of them were exhausted.  As soon as they did this...the nuns and Lozada started nodding off. I left the room and took one last photo of this brave man and his veiled security guard.

Rock Ed will keep working on making these issues known.  I "live-googled" this info for all of you to see the human face behind what goes on.  And the torment (supposedly) honest men face when faced with the greedier and more powerful men and women in government. Lozada has a lot to explain, too.  A lot to explain. But I suppose we are grateful that things turned out this way.  Whatever his reasons are for "coming out" with his side of the truth, we just take it.  But seriously, this kind of transparency should've been happening way before the media found him.  Way before his life was threatened.  Integrity is being honest with or without anyone watching, or with or without death threats above your head. What an interesting time.

Rock Ed is still politically non-partisan, but it will continue to focus on making civic issues more interesting to the young. Political sides should be the personal choice of the person participating in Rock Ed's spirit.  But on a personal note, this administration will have to explain this scandal soon, own up, and amend --otherwise I will take it that -- it has officially declared itself my enemy.

(more photos on an album in my photos link above entitled, "Jun Lozada, witness")

Gang Badoy
7Feb2008
728am
Katipunan Road