MANILA, Philippines -- Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. finally got his passport back Thursday but it did not have the usual arrival stamp from the Philippine immigration bureau.

?It seems they would make it appear that I did not arrive in the Philippines,? said Lozada, star witness in the scrapped $329-million broadband project with China?s ZTE Corp.

Lozada was at the Court of Appeals, which is hearing his petition for a writ of amparo, a relief adopted by the Supreme Court last year in the midst of a surge of disappearances and extrajudicial executions.

The former head of the state-owned Philippine Forest Corp. said he was abducted on his return from Hong Kong on Feb. 5, where he had spent a week on a trip financed by Malacañang to avoid a Senate inquiry into allegations of overpricing and bribery in the broadband deal.

Lozada has said that he did not want to testify.

He said the men who met him at the airport took his passport and did not return it until it was handed back to him at Thursday?s hearing.

The passport was shown to the court by Eric Santos, the lawyer of Rodolfo Valeroso, an agent of the Aviation Security Group who allegedly seized Lozada as he stepped out of his plane at Gate 7 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Santos said Valeroso wanted to return the passport earlier but his reluctance to show himself in the midst of the furor over Lozada?s alleged abduction prevented him from doing so.

Proof of abduction

One of Lozada?s lawyers, Edwin Lacierda, confirmed that the passport was Lozada?s and said the absence of the arrival stamp supported his client?s claim that he was seized from the airport by Valeroso.

Passengers who arrive in the Philippines are required to go through immigration and present their passports to immigration agents, who stamp them to show their arrival date.

Lacierda said that the passport bore an immigration stamp to indicate Lozada?s departure on Jan. 30 and his arrival in Hong Kong on the same day. There was also a stamp to show he left Hong Kong on Feb. 5. But the stamp to indicate his return to Manila was missing.

During the hearing Thursday, Lozada?s wife Violeta tearfully told the appellate court that her husband indicated that there was a chance that he might not return from Hong Kong.

?He told me in case he wasn?t able to go home, I have to take care of all our kids,? Violeta said, before breaking down in tears. ?I know for a fact he is really afraid.?

Violeta took the witness stand Thursday to support her husband?s plea for a temporary protection order under the writ of amparo because of continuing threats to his life.

Her voice was also breaking as she told the court that her husband was receiving threatening text messages. She said the family?s movements had been restricted so as not to compromise their security.

Assistant Solicitor General Magtanggol Castro questioned Violeta on the alleged threats. Castro asked if any of the public officials named as respondents in the amparo petition had personally sent the threats.

The respondents are President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Philippine National Police Director General Avelino Razon, Assistant General Manager Angel Atutubo of the Manila International Airport Authority and Valeroso.

Violeta said only former Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos had threatened her husband.

She said Lozada had told her about Abalos? call while he was in Dumaguete last year. ?He just said papatayin siya pag nakita siya sa Wack Wack (He would be killed if he is seen in Wack Wack),? she said.