MANILA, Philippines -- A government TV network Thursday produced a “crying witness” who tried to demolish the credibility of Senate star witness Rodolfo Noel “Jun” Lozada Jr., accusing the former chief of Philippine Forest Corp. (Philforest) of land-grabbing and condoning irregularities in the agency’s procurement process.

A teary-eyed Erwin Santos, program development officer at the state-owned Philforest, said on NBN 4 television’s “Boses Ngayon” that he decided to come out to “reveal the whole truth.”

The live interview was also aired by government-sequestered television stations RPN 9 and IBC 13.

Lozada was Santos’ boss until the former resigned as Philforest chief executive officer on Feb. 7, two days after he arrived in Manila from Hong Kong and decided to face the Senate to reveal what he knew about the scandal-ridden National Broadband Network (NBN) deal with China’s ZTE Corp.

Santos is now the officer in charge of Philforest. “I’m only saying the whole truth,” he said, pausing as he tried to fight back tears.

Addressing to Lozada, Santos said: “Sir Jun, I care for you, but before you can be a good leader, let’s face the consequences.”

“I know we did something wrong. I’m equally liable … We have to be liable for what we did,” said Santos, who claimed to be a trusted aide of Lozada at Philforest.

Santos, who started working with Lozada in 2007, repeated this line as he broke into tears several times, a scene reminiscent of Lozada’s first press conference at La Salle Green Hills and his nationally televised sometimes tearful testimony in the Senate.

Santos claimed that Lozada had distributed government lands to his siblings Arturo and Clavel and other relatives, as well as to him.

Santos admitted this was illegal, but said he was prepared to go to jail. “I have evidence. They are intact,” he said.

Santos also urged senators investigating the scrapped NBN deal to stop using Lozada for political reasons.

‘I did this on my own’

“I hope they will understand that I did this of my own volition. I hope you should stop using Sir Jun. He has a pure heart. His family is affected. I hope we should leave Sir Jun alone,” he said.

Santos said he and Lozada were both caught in the middle of clashing forces.

“I told him a long time ago that we had to be careful with our procurement procedure. (We had been saying) these should be clear,” he said, lamenting that the procurement process at Philforest did not pass through the bidding process under Lozada’s watch.

He cited the procurement of office supplies and service contracts entered into by Philforest.

Santos confirmed the pronouncements of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago while questioning Lozada during the Senate inquiry on Feb. 11 that Lozada had committed illegal acts at the agency, including entering into a contract with a corporation owned by his wife and getting an insurance plan from her.

He said Lozada called him up twice recently, blaming him for releasing documents to Santiago, but the latter denied Santos was the source of the information.

“He asked me how Miriam came to know about (the transactions)... He told me ‘Bonj, if you want to double-cross me, do it all the way,” Santos said in Filipino.

4 documents to NBI

But Santos said he only released four documents to the National Bureau of Investigation, including articles of incorporation, a list of lands and supply letter requests.

Besides procurement irregularities, Santos claimed that Lozada had also “arbitrarily distributed” lands to some of the agency’s beneficiaries under the “Lupang Hinirang” program.

Those who have benefited from Lozada’s land distribution number “between 20 and 30,” Santos said, adding that in one instance, he personally carried Lozada’s instruction to arbitrarily award lands to his siblings and relatives.