Lozada hinuli at ikinulong

MANILA, Philippines - An arrest warrant was issued yesterday by the Manila Metropolitan Trial Court (MTC) against Rodolfo Lozada Jr., one of the Senate’s primary witnesses in the government’s controversial national broadband network (NBN) contract with China’s ZTE Corp.

MTC Judge Jorge Emmanuel Lorredo ordered the arrest of Lozada after granting the appeal of Michael Defensor.

Defensor, President Arroyo’s former chief of staff who also held several other positions in government, filed the complaint against Lozada, alleging that the former government consultant lied in his testimony before the Court of Appeals in a petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

Lozada allegedly stated that Defensor tried to convince him to retract his claims that he was abducted to keep him from testifying in the Senate on the NBN deal.

Officials had said the snatch was a move to protect Lozada from threats. He was released hours after he was supposedly kidnapped. Lozada alleged he was offered P50,000 by Defensor to retract his statement that he was snatched at the airport upon arrival from abroad, as well as to deny that he knew the details surrounding the NBN-ZTE deal. Defensor denied the allegations.

Defensor filed the complaint against Lozada on July 5, 2008 but his complaint was dismissed by judge Lorredo for lack of probable cause.

Defensor then appealed the case before the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC), and judge Cicero Jurado reversed the ruling and ordered the MTC’s Lorredo to issue the warrant.

The RTC had issued a resolution dated March 19 upholding the perjury charge by Defensor on grounds of grave error on the part of the lower court judge.

Lorredo issued a warrant of arrest yesterday morning.

Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim earlier filed a petition before the MTC seeking custody of Lozada but it was denied by the court.

In his six-page complaint, Defensor denied allegations that he paid Lozada to retract.

Defensor said that on Feb. 8, 2008, he appeared before the Senate to explain his participation in the alleged kidnapping of Lozada.

He said he only knew about the alleged kidnapping of Lozada from news reports.

When he found out that Lozada took refuge at the De La Salle Dormitory in Greenhills, Defensor said he immediately went there only to confirm the reports.

Lozada, for his part, remarked that he was pulled back into another “vortex” by his impending arrest.

“What is really painful is that only a month ago, I have already decided to just go back to my profession, put up a practice or business that is in the line of technology. What made it really painful for me is that after so many months of discernment… now I’m again sucked back into the vortex of these storms,” he said.

Lozada, an engineer by profession, lamented that he could not use his talents to help his wife and five children because of the controversies hounding him.

“I have been avoiding trouble as much as I could. If you notice I have been keeping a low profile lately. I was just planning to enter into business but they are bringing trouble upon me,” he said.

Lozada admitted that he was not even sure if he would win against Defensor, but “I intend to make it a little more difficult for them… I have no other option but to fight back…in whatever arena, in whatever platform just to break this silence on their abuses against me.”

Lozada previously worked as a government consultant for the $329-million NBN contract with ZTE Corp.

Lozada had alleged former elections chief Benjamin Abalos acted as a broker for the contract.

He became a key witness in the scandal and went on to implicate First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo during the Senate inquiry over the deal.

ganun? yun lamang? eksenang-eksena nga naman talaga.

pero kukunin yata siya ng senado.. star witness siya diba?

Judge to Defensor: Lozada case may lead to arrest order vs First Couple


abs-cbnNEWS.com | 05/05/2009 8:43 AM

The judge handling the perjury case against NBN-ZTE star witness Rodolfo "Jun" Lozada has advised the complainant, former presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor, to settle the case amicably.

"Defensor has admitted on TV that this perjury case he is pursuing against Lozada is very bad for his political career. I fully agree with him," Jorge Emmanuel Lorredo, presiding judge of the Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 26 of Manila, said in a five-page order issued on Monday. "Furthermore, I say that it may be very bad for his health and his family as well. If he gets sick like Mike Arroyo, would not that be bad for him and his family?"

Lorredo's five-page order was supposed to be about the schedule of Lozada's arraignment on May 7. The judge, however, narrated in the order how Defensor may suffer the same fate of Mrs. Arroyo's husband, whose health deteriorated at the time he filed more than a dozen cases against people who accused him of corruption.

"There are those who say that the serious heart disease is some kind of punishment for Atty. Mike Arroyo. I do not know if this is true, for I do not really know how our Lord works, for He does work in mysterious ways," he said.

He also mentioned in the order that of all the president's he know, only Mrs. Arroyo's spouse became sickly. "He has a serious heart disease. He even tries to make us believe that he is [in] no condition to attend Senate probes."

The judge, who originally dismissed the perjury case but was forced to issue an arrest order against Lozada after a Manila trial court reversed his ruling, said he included "my words designed to penetrate Defensor's mind and heart" in the order so that the former chief presidential aide "would be able to think clearly so that on May 7, 2009, there could already be peace between him and Lozada."

He also told Defensor that Lozada being protected by the Church "must mean something." "Defensor, take note: that must mean something," he said, adding that Mrs. Arroyo's former chief of staff should look the nuns and priests protecting Lozada at their faces during the arraignment.

Arrest warrant vs First Couple?

Lorredo assured Defensor that he will "fairly" handle the case assuring the former presidential chief of staff that he will allow the prosecution team to present all evidence that will prove Lozada committed perjury when he made conflicting statements before the Court of Appeals and the Senate in relation to the allegedly bribery-ridden $328-million broadband deal between the government and Chinese firm ZTE Corp.

He said he will also allow Lozada's camp to destroy all the arguments presented by Defensor's camp.

The judge also warned Defensor that the simple perjury case he filed against Lozada is "very explosive potential" with the possible inclusion of Mrs. Arroyo and her husband in the trial.

Lorredo also assured defensor that if Mrs. Arroyo and her husband were asked to stand as witness to the trial, he will not hesitate to issue subpoena to the First Couple.

"If Gloria and Mike refuse to obey the subpoena, I will not hesitate to issue the warrants of arrest against them because it is the constitutional right of Lozada to have the best possible defense. And it is my duty to see to it that there is due process in my court," the judge said.

He said if the police would refuse to serve the warrants of arrest to the First Couple, he can deputize other public officers, possibly Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim and other opposition senators, to serve the warrants of arrest.

"Some of these people are lawyers, some of them have had extensive police experience, like Mayor Fred Lim and Senate Ping Lacson. They can arrest, handcuff and put behind bars any fugitive," the judge warned.

He also mentioned a worst case scenario: The senators clashing with the Presidential Security Group and jailed Sen. Antonio Trillanes "and his comrades" joining the arrest mission against the President and the First Gentleman.

"Get the picture, Mr. Railroadman Defensor?" Lorredo asked. "Defensor, just imagine how powerful a message that would for our people and for the whole world. And just imagine how that would affect the first couple."as of 05/05/2009 9:04 AM
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/05/05/09/judge-defensor-lozada-case-may-lead-arrest-order-vs-first-couple