KASAUP

Reprinted from the May 4, 2009 issue of The Philippine Star

Lozada jailing displays unjust Arroyo system

GOTCHA By Jarius Bondoc
Updated May 04, 2009 12:00 AM

Expectedly Arroyo officials are muddling the issue of ZTE scam whistleblower Jun Lozada’s jailing. There’s Justice Sec. Raul Gonzalez, disowning any admin role in the perjury rap filed against Lozada by ex-presidential chief of staff Mike Defensor. And there’s Palace spokesman Anthony Golez, yakking that the police only served an arrest warrant issued by an independent court.

Being both as nebulous as Defensor, the two need straightening out. Lozada’s detention can only be seen as harassment by the admin, because Defensor is very much its member. Gloria Arroyo appointed him recently as railways chief and special presidential adviser. He also remains the First Family’s favorite neighbor in Quezon City. In suing Lozada, he may intend self-vindication, but he’s also getting back at a detractor on behalf of the admin. Moreover, the claim of merely obeying court orders doesn’t wash, considering that the admin defies the judiciary in bigger cases. In the same week as Lozada’s arrest, Executive Sec. Ed Ermita refused to enforce the Sandiganbayan’s suspension of the mayor of Rodriguez, Rizal.

The Lozada issue is simple. Ever since he validated in Feb. 2008 the ZTE overpricing, authorities have slapped him with 16 court charges. By contrast, not one of those whom he linked to the $329-million anomaly — Gloria and Mike Arroyo, Romy Neri, Leandro Mendoza, Peter Favila, Ben Abalos — have been indicted. Neither have those who bribed or ordered him to avoid or fib in Congress — Defensor, Lito Atienza, Manuel Gaite — been investigated. Yet Lozada’s wife too has been sued for perjury — by the police colonel-stranger who had picked him up at the airport supposedly to be taken home 15 minutes away via a circuitous route of five hours.

The better to point up the injustice, Lozada opts to not post bail. This riles Gonzalez and Golez, who rant that he’s challenging the rule of law. Lozada must post the P6,000 for his liberty as part of the legal process, they insist. Again they try to distract attention from the fact that the ZTE scam perpetrators remain free. Not to forget, the easiest way for Lozada to regain freedom is for Defensor to withdraw the lawsuit.

Defensor claims to be suing Lozada to clear his name for the sake of his four growing children. That’s debatable. As the 70-strong Former Senior Government Officials says: “What moral value does he hope to impart to his young children with his vain and obstinate defense of injured pride, while participating in the cover-up of gross abuses against our people and our laws? [He should] stop posturing as if he is the aggrieved person, even as he was clearly a participant in the cover-up of what became an aborted abduction of Lozada.”

For accusing Lozada of lying, Defensor’s checkered past is being raked up. Rep. Teddy Casiño recounts two times when Defensor told fantastic tales. One was the then-presidential chief of staff’s supposed rescue in 2003 of a Senate witness against Mike Arroyo’s hidden wealth, whom they then hid from further congressional grilling. The other was Defensor’s presentation in 2005 of a fake audio expert peddling the sham that it isn’t Gloria Arroyo’s voice in the Hello Garci tapes.

Actually there’s more. Defensor has yet to explain his participation in another scam. As Arroyo’s chief aide he had signed as witness in the July 2006 Malacañang contract that unconstitutionally gave ZTE International mining rights in Diwalwal and North Davao, Compostela. Copies of the deal are with the Senate. Justice department and Ombudsman prosecutors easily could have obtained the evidence to pin down Defensor, main signatory Favila, and authorizer Arroyo. Yet they’ve all been quicker going after crime exposer Lozada.

In sidebar, the Lozada episode inadvertently reveals quirks in the justice system. For one, the police cannot transfer detainee Lozada from its holding area to the city jail, nor can the Senate regain custody of its witness — all because the judge who ordered the arrest suddenly went on leave. So Lozada has to suffer asthma in a hot cell. Again by contrast, two healthy Swedes, nabbed in a raid of their cyber-sex den in Cagayan de Oro, have been granted special detention in air-conditioned hospital suites. Will Gonzalez and Golez blame that ironic twist on Lozada too?

* * *

Three weeks after the tragedy, the NBI finally is finding that Ted Failon’s wife’s death by gunshot was a suicide. Had they listened to the accounts of Trina’s sister and daughter, the cops would have reached the same conclusion. Sadly they heeded instead the intrigues of Raul Gonzalez and envious crabs in the media who were vilifying the popular Ted.

They’re no different from the talangka who wanted Manny Pacquiao to lose yesterday on the presumptuous notion that one more win would make him richer and hence haughty.