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That was
an exhausting 10-hour hearing at the Senate on Monday on
the controversial ZTE-NBN deal, with key witness Rodolfo
“Jun” Lozada again being grilled by senators, this time
on his alleged abduction upon his arrival from Hong Kong
the other Tuesday.
An array
of government officials, led by Environment Secretary
Lito Atienza and PNP Director General Avelino Razon,
took turns disputing the kidnapping charge.
Since
Atienza was Lozada’s boss at the DENR, I was interested
in what he had to say on the former Philforest president
and CEO’s claim of having been abducted by government
agents.
As far
as I could gather, these were Atienza’s main points:
One,
Atienza said he acted on his own when he asked the
police to provide protection for Lozada upon his arrival
from
Hong Kong. Lozada, he said, approached him “emotionally distressed and
on the verge of tears” and asked for protection. “Mr.
Lozada sought my help, I granted it,” he said. Atienza
said he called up the PNP and requested for Lozada’s
protection upon his arrival.
Two, he
cleared Mrs. Arroyo of any culpability in the alleged
abduction. “He [Lozada] said I involved ES [Executive
Secretary Eduardo Ermita] and Ma’am [the President],
that is not true, I never mentioned Ma’am in official
functions in getting him protected,” Atienza said. “I
was acting on my own, what I told him was, let us clear
with Manny [Gaite, deputy executive secretary for legal
affairs] your legal problems in refusing to appear in
the Senate,” Atienza said.
Three,
the DENR chief denied Lozada was kidnapped. “He was not
made incommunicado. There was no force used on him. He
was able to go to La Salle freely that [Tuesday] night,”
Atienza said. “Never was there a time that Lozada was
deprived of his rights,” Atienza said. “I talked to him
and told him they were government men and they were out
to protect him. I told him they would take him wherever
he wanted. I called him up again that night, and he said
he was fine,” Atienza said.
Four, he
said he went to the Senate to clear his name, which had
remained untainted for 36 years since he entered
politics. Atienza said he felt “violated” for being
dragged into the alleged abduction.
Five, he
said Lozada had been influenced by some senators
ostensibly to blow the whistle on the NBN project with
China. “I thought I was the only one he was relying on
to save his life but as it turned out, he was in contact
with some senators,” Atienza said. He said that some
senators knew that Lozada would not be going to
London,
that he would return home early, and that he would be
resigning from Philforest.
And,
finally, Atienza also denied that he dissuaded Lozada
from testifying because this could lead to the downfall
of the Arroyo administration. “I only told him to be
sure about his testimony, do not rely on hearsay or
gossip, stick to your full knowledge,” he said.
That’s
Atienza’s version of events.
Lozada,
as we know, maintained his earlier assertion that he was
taken by government agents against his will.
Which
side will the Senate believe when it concludes the probe
and writes the final report? And more important, which
side will the public believe?
Ghost of
past hounds Arroyo administration
News
reports indicate that the Supreme Court has already
decided to allow the airing of the controversial “Hello,
Garci” tapes said to contain the conversation between
Mrs. Arroyo and then-Comelec commissioner Virgilio
Garcillano about rigging the 2004 presidential
elections.
If the
Supreme Court does come out with such a ruling this
Friday—Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez says he has
talked to Justice Eduardo Nachura, who informed him the
High Court had already voted 9 to 6 in favor of the
petition filed by former solicitor general Frank
Chavez—this could prove to be yet another big problem
for the Arroyo administration, already beleaguered by
allegations of high-level corruption in the ZTE-NBN
deal.
I can
imagine the Palace official line going this way: This is
a closed case that could only be taken advantage of to
destabilize the administration. There was no cheating in
the 2004 polls. All allegations of cheating have been
unproven. Mrs. Arroyo won fair and square over Fernando
Poe Jr. And variations or permutations thereof.
But the
political opposition and civil-society groups—already
seeing in the ZTE-NBN scandal a golden opportunity to
pin down the Arroyo administration on perceived
wrongdoing—will have in the Supreme Court decision
additional political ammunition. Allegations of
corruption and cheating in elections strike a raw nerve
in the Filipino psyche, but will this be enough to
gather enough warm bodies for another round of People
Power? |
