Lozada yields to Senate team

Rodolfo Noel "Jun" Lozada Jr, a witness in a Senate corruption inquiry that has implicated President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's husband, left the La Salle Greenhills in Mandaluyong City after voluntarily yielding to a Senate team, which has been hunting him since last week. Lozada surfaced early Thursday to tell all he knew about the anomaly-tainted broadband deal. Lozada, surrounded by members of the De La Salle Brothers, faced the media and gave his statement at past 2 a.m. At the press conference, Lozada claimed that former Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos had asked for a P130-million kickback from the broadband deal. Lozada served as a technical consultant to former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri at a time officials were discussing the broadband contract with a Chinese company, Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment Corp. The broadband deal with ZTE was originally pegged at $262-million but the cost mysteriously ballooned to $329-million, according to Lozada. He said the scrapped National Broadband Network was a good project until Abalos brokered for the government and asked for hefty commission. Moreover, Lozada said the project was originally to be financed under the build-operate-transfer arrangement but Abalos allegedly insisted that it should be funded through loans. The funding scheme was changed when Abalos phoned First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, asking him to convince the President that a loan arrangement for the project was suitable, according to Lozada. Lozada said when he questioned the changes, Abalos threatened him. “Sabi n'ya wag kang magpapakita sa Wack-Wack (golf course in Mandaluyong), papatayin kita," Lozada said, quoting Abalos. (Don't show up at Wack Wack because I will kill you.) Lozada also announced that he already resigned as president and chief executive officer of the Philippine Forest Corporation, an agency under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. After arriving in Manila from Hong Kong Tuesday, Lozada said police officers fetched him at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. He said he was asked to sign some affidavits, including a request for security, that may contradict his statements at the press conference. Last year, Jose ''Joey'' de Venecia III, a losing bidder and the son of the recently ousted speaker of the House of Representatives, told a Senate inquiry investigating the deal that Mrs Arroyo's husband was promised a US$70 million kickback. Jose Miguel ''Mike'' Arroyo has denied any wrongdoing. De Venecia III also claimed the President asked Neri why he did not take a P500-million bribe allegedly offered by a former election chief Benjamin Abalos to approve the deal. Neri told the Senate he turned down the offer but refused to link Mrs Arroyo or her husband to the scandal. Opposition senators believe Lozada may be the missing link in their effort to prove the President and her husband were involved in approving the deal, which was eventually scrapped. - GMANews.TV