An Orgy of Denials

Posted by: Isa Lorenzo | February 11, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Filed under: PCIJ Podcasts, Congress Watch, Governance, In the News

RODOLFO Noel ‘Jun’ Lozada Jr. was not abducted when he arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. He told many people that he did not want to attend the Senate hearing on the NBN-ZTE scandal and asked them to help him. So said the phalanx of current and former government officials that attended the second Senate hearing featuring the key witness in the scrapped broadband deal.

Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) general manager Alfonso Cusi said that based on their investigation, records and closed circuit television recording, Lozada was not forcibly abducted. The latter was able to move around freely. The men who were with him were not armed, and they were wearing identification cards.

The request to secure Lozada came from Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza, who said that he called Philippine National Police chief Avelino Razon Jr. Police Security and Protection Office (PSPO) second-in-command Paul Mascariñas was eventually ordered to assemble a team.

During the hearing, Mascariñas admitted that he was not informed as to the exact nature of the threat against Lozada. Nevertheless, Mascariñas’s team was able to coordinate with the NAIA security to “escort” Lozada, which the Senate sergeant-at-arms failed to do.

Mascariñas did not know who Lozada was. It was Rodolfo Valeroso, a retired master sergeant and a member of the PNP’s aviation security group whom Mascariñas handpicked to be part of the team, who identified Lozada and picked him up as he stepped off the plane.

“Let it be clear that there was no kidnapping or abduction, the PSPO provided security for Lozada at Lozada’s request. Lozada went with his own free will, was free to leave anytime, and never asked PSPO to let him go,” maintained Razon.

Listen to the testimonies of Cusi, Atienza, and Razon.
Lozada insisted that he never asked for police protection, nor did he willingly go with Mascariñas’s team. He was also able to exit the airport without passing through the immigration counter, despite being on the Bureau of Immigration’s watch list.

Based on Mascariñas’s testimony, after his team secured Lozada, they drove around because they had no instructions about where to take him.

“I did not feel that they were my protectors,” said Lozada, adding that if the men were protecting him, they would have told him their names and where they were going. None of the men also bothered to inform members of Lozada’s family, who were waiting for him at the airport, that Lozada was in their custody.

Aside from Atienza, Lozada also confided in former presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor, who is a personal friend. After hearing of Lozada’s financial troubles, Defensor gave him P50,000, an amount that Lozada later returned to the former presidential chief of staff during the hearing. Defensor denied that he offered Lozada money to say that he was not abducted, although he eventually admitted that he did advise Lozada to hold a press conference and say that he was not kidnapped.

Listen to Defensor’s testimony.
“Lagi lang hong tatlo yung request ko (I always have three requests),” said Lozada. “Ayokong pumunta sa Senado. Yung death threat paki patigil na lang. Pagpunta ko sa Senado, hindi ako makakapagsinungaling (I didn’t want to go to the Senate. Please stop the death threats. When I testify before the Senate, I won’t be able to lie).”

Lozada stood by his earlier testimony, despite a string of denials from the government officials whom the Senate invited to attend the hearing. Palace secretary for special concerns Remedios Poblador was the sole official mentioned by Lozada who did not attend the hearing.

Atienza meanwhile denied that he had ever talked to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo about Lozada.

“I did not instruct him to go abroad or to Hong Kong, I did not prepare his travel papers, nor did I prepare his flight arrangements,” said Manuel Gaite, deputy executive secretary for legal affairs.

“That’s a stupid thing to say, I didn’t say that,” said lawyer Antonio Bautista, of Lozada’s claim that he was coaxed to sign an affidavit for “the comfort of Malacañang.” Bautista said that he became Lozada’s lawyer through a third-party arrangement, after Gaite told him that Lozada needed legal representation to evade the Senate hearing. Lozada said, however, that Bautista was never his “counsel of choice.”

Razon later admitted that Lozada’s handwritten request for protection was made after he had arrived in Manila. During the hearing, Atienza asserted that he was telling the truth. The other officials also tried to refute Lozada’s statements. Lozada told ANC’s Pinky Webb during a break in the hearing that the statements of the government officials were half-truths, as shown by their difficulty in answering clarificatory questions.

All of the witnesses made their statements under oath. But their conflicting testimonies reveal continuing attempts to cover up the truth behind the NBN-ZTE deal.