Lozada surfaces; nuns post his bail
WHISTLE-BLOWER Rodolfo Lozada Jr. finally surfaced yesterday and posted bail, about two weeks after the Sandiganbayan ordered his arrest for a graft case filed in 2008 during the Arroyo administration after he exposed the allegedly anomalous $329-million national broadband network (NBN) deal with China’s ZTE Corp.
Accompanied by a group of nuns and priests, Lozada turned himself in to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) at the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters in Camp Crame before proceeding to the Sandiganbayan to post bail for his provisional liberty.
Wearing a white long-sleeve shirt, Lozada looked haggard as he arrived at the CIDG office at about 7 a.m. with his brother, Jose Orlando Lozada, lawyer Jose Manuel Diokno and members of the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines (AMRSP). He met with CIDG officer in charge Chief Supt. Federico Castro.
The Sandiganbayan also issued an arrest warrant on Jan. 23 for Orlando, who supposedly was awarded leasehold rights to government lands when Lozada was president of the Philippine Forestry Corp. (PFC) in 2007.
The cases were filed by incumbent PFC president Erwin Santos.
Lozada declined to be interviewed. “I’m just tired,” he told reporters.
Sanctuary program
Fr. Marlon Lacal, of the AMRSP, clarified that the AMRSP paid Lozada’s P30,000 bail under its “sanctuary program,” while the money for Orlando’s bail came from Sen. Panfilo Lacson.
Castro said Lozada voluntarily surrendered and went through the “normal booking process of an arrested person” at the CIDG which took the fingerprints and mug shots of Lozada and his brother.
The booking process lasted less than an hour, but Lozada stayed at the CIDG for about two hours before their group left for the Sandiganbayan at 9:30 a.m.
“The Sandiganyan had directed us to physically present the body of Mr. Lozada before the court. So that’s what we did,” Castro said.
Acts of harassment
Castro said the CIDG would help investigate the supposed harassment that Lozada and his family suffered from unidentified armed men who posed as agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima yesterday said the NBI was looking into the people behind the “reported acts of harassment’’ against Lozada.
De Lima said the Department of Justice had been providing security to Lozada’s family after the armed men went to his home in Pasig City three times last week looking for him.
The last time the armed men went to his home on Thursday night, they introduced themselves as NBI agents, she said.
“They were impostors for sure because we did not send any NBI men (to Lozada’s home),’’ De Lima told reporters.
She said she had asked the NBI to look into “who are these people and, more importantly, who are behind them in those acts of harassment.’’
Fearing for his family’s safety, Lozada sought anew the help of the nuns and priests of the AMRSP who agreed to provide him temporary sanctuary.
The arrest of the Lozada brothers came after the Office of the Ombudsman dismissed their motion for reconsideration which assailed a previous resolution finding probable cause to indict them.
In dismissing the motion, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales said the accused failed to show or present new evidence or irregularities in the finding of probable cause.
“None of these grounds is pre- sent in these cases. The arguments raised by the respondents were already addressed and exhaustively discussed,” Morales said.
Arraignment set
Lozada and his brother were charged in the first case of violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act for the award of a 6.59hectare leasehold right to Orlando in December 2009 under PhilForest’s Lupang Hinirang program.
On the second count of graft, Lozada purportedly awarded leasehold rights to Transforma Quinta Inc. which he and his wife, Maria Violeta Lozada, represented.
Arraignment has been set for March 6 in the same court room where Lozada is also scheduled to testify as a witness in another graft case, the NBN-ZTE deal which includes former President Arroyo as one of the accused.
It was Lozada who blew the whistle on the allegedly anomalous deal which led to the filing of graft charges against Arroyo and several former government officials.