MANILA, Philippines -- ?If you are reading this affidavit, I am probably dead.?

This was how the affidavit of Rodolfo Noel ?Jun? Lozada Jr. began, according to Vicente ?Enteng? Romano, lead convenor of the Black and White Movement, a group that has called for the resignation of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Romano on Wednesday told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that as an ?insurance? in case Lozada was harmed the witness had executed an affidavit detailing his intimate knowledge of the corruption and officials involved in the $329-million contract for the National Broadband Network (NBN) project awarded to China?s ZTE Corp.

But Lozada is executing another affidavit that may negate his earlier written statement.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita Wednesday announced that Lozada was preparing an affidavit on his ?position? on the NBN controversy and was meeting with his lawyer.

?Mr. Lozada will surface in time and can be interviewed and he will tell the truth about what had happened to him,? Ermita said.

PDI report confirmed

Romano?s disclosure confirms an earlier Inquirer report that Lozada, and his close friend, Commission on Higher Education Chair Romulo Neri, had executed affidavits and recorded on videotape what they know about the ZTE scandal for their safety.

Lozada, an information technology (IT) expert turned government executive, has told Sen. Panfilo Lacson and ZTE scandal whistle-blower Jose ?Joey? de Venecia III about the affidavits.

The executive secretary said Lozada was not abducted upon his arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Tuesday but was placed under police protection upon the request of his brother.

Ermita said Malacañang would not stop Lozada from testifying in the Senate investigation of the ZTE deal because it had nothing to hide or fear.

Privy to a lot of things

?He is free to do what he wishes,? Ermita said of Lozada, chief executive of state-owned Philippine Forest Corp.

Romano, a friend of Lozada?s, is the first person who read Lozada?s first affidavit and talked about it.

?I think he was privy to a lot of things,? said Romano, who met with Lozada several times and talked to him about what he knew of the ZTE scandal.

The convenor of the B&W Movement said that on Tuesday morning, before Lozada boarded a plane back to Manila, he had sent him a text message that read, ?I am leaving this to God. I?m coming home. I will do the right thing.?

But Lozada was snatched by government agents at the airport.

Warning

Romano said the existence of Lozada?s affidavit, which the Senate witness entrusted to an unnamed friend, should warn those wanting to harm Lozada that he had obtained his account of the corruption that attended the ZTE deal.

?I think that was the intention there. [It was made as] some form of insurance, that if something bad happens to him it will come out. He probably left instructions,? Romano told the Inquirer.

Romano said that because of the uncertainty over the condition of Lozada, the existence of the affidavit was important.

?My feeling is it is in the special interest [of the public] that people know he has an affidavit,? the B&W Movement convenor said.

Romano said Lozada showed him his affidavit late last year when the Senate was conducting its investigation of the ZTE scandal.

President?s husband

At the Senate hearings, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband and then Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. were implicated in the ZTE deal.

Romano recalled it was before Neri testified at the Senate on Sept. 26 last year that Abalos had offered him a P200-million bribe to approve the ZTE proposal to undertake the NBN project as director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

De Venecia accused Abalos of lobbying for ZTE in exchange for commissions and of offering him $10 million in December 2006 so his company would stop seeking to undertake the NBN project. Abalos denied the allegations and resigned as Comelec chair on Oct. 1, 2007.

De Venecia, head of Amsterdam Holdings Inc. (AHI), also accused the President?s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, of bullying him to stop him from pursuing the NBN project.

AHI failed to get the NBN project.

Amid the controversy, Ms Arroyo scrapped on Oct. 2, 2007, the NBN deal, which was signed on April 21 last year by Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza and ZTE vice president Yu Yong in ceremonies witnessed by her.

Corroboration

In his affidavit, Lozada detailed what he knew about the ZTE deal, most of which corroborated the statements already made by De Venecia, according to Romano.

?Most of what was written there had already been testified to. It will corroborate what happened and a little bit more detailed (account),? Romano said, including the overpricing and bribery aspects.

He said Lozada also mentioned things that Neri had told Lozada.

Romano said Lozada mentioned names, including that of Abalos.

Asked if there were other names, like that of the President?s husband, Romano said he could not recall.

Romano said he only read the affidavits and did not take a copy. Neither did he take notes.

?I don?t want to have it. I don?t want the burden of having that knowledge,? Romano said, adding he vividly remembered the opening line of the affidavit.

IT business

Romano, who first met Lozada in the late ?90s since they were in the same IT business, said he had sought out Lozada through a common friend when the ZTE hearings began in the Senate.

He said Lozada talked to him about what he knew, and shared with him his affidavit because he knew he was with the civil society group and has access to media.

While Lozada?s name was not mentioned in the Senate, he somehow expected that his name would crop up because he was present at a lot of meetings about the ZTE deal, according to Romano.

?His feeling is that ultimately he will be (talked about) because he was very visible to some people there,? the B&W official said.

Later, Lozada expressed the hope that Neri would talk about everything so that he would not be summoned to the hearings, according to Romano.

Death threats

Romano said that during his meetings with Lozada, the latter confirmed the corruption in the ZTE project.

?I think he knew enough what was going on in detail. My sense was that there was basis to the information (about the bribery). Talagang madumi daw (It was really that dirty),? Romano said.

He said that before Lozada left for abroad last week, he texted him about the death threats he got.

?Ingat ka Bro (Take care, brother),? Romano texted back.

Romano said he did not know then that Lozada had been summoned to the Senate and that he left the country hours before the Senate hearing.

The last time Lozada texted him was when he was about to board a flight back to the country.

Potential overpricing

Neri said Lozada, whom he tapped to examine the NBN project, raised concerns over the ?potential overpricing? of the $329-million NBN deal.

Neri was the director general of the NEDA, the agency tasked with reviewing government-to-government contracts, when the NBN fell on his lap early last year. Neri was transferred to CHEd in August.

Neri advised Lozada to make a report on the project, but the latter did not, so he could not give details on the red flags that Lozada saw.

At a press briefing, Neri said Lozada, who ?sat during the meetings,? was never part of the deal.

It was Neri?s first press briefing after he disappeared a week ago to evade the arrest warrant issued by the Senate against him for failing to attend the hearing on the deal.

Lozada was supposed to testify in the Senate about his knowledge of the ZTE deal. His Senate appearance last week was postponed as Lozada left the country for Hong Kong.

Neri said he tapped Lozada, a former executive of telecommunication firm Alcatel, to help him review the project as NEDA lacked experts on information technology and broadband networking.

?He was not exactly formally a consultant, but you have to consult the people in the know. People who are familiar with broadband,? he said.

Victor Corpus

According to Neri, he met Lozada three years ago, when the latter was involved in a distance learning project.

He noted that he was introduced to Lozada by former Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines chief, retired Brig. Gen. Victor Corpus, who was appointed forestry czar.

Asked how well he knew Lozada, Neri said: ?I can?t say much except that he said he used to work for Alcatel and with IBM in the Middle East before that.?

?He strikes me as very sociable, intelligent, and imaginative. He told me that he idolizes Jose Rizal,? Neri said.

Lozada was also a keen advocate of biofuels in his work in PFC, he added.

Neri also revealed that Lozada called him on Tuesday night but the conversation was short. He further assured the media that Lozada was ?in good hands and secured,? although he admitted that he was ?worried? for Lozada before the call.

?I was worried for a while and I don?t know the reason why. I feel for his wife and his five children but he called me up [Tuesday] at 9 p.m. He said he is okay,? the CHEd executive said.

But when asked if Lozada divulged his whereabouts, Neri did not give further details, saying Lozada merely told him he was fine. He added that he could not say if Lozada?s tone of voice indicated that the call was made under duress.