WITH THE RICE CRISIS AND SOARING fuel prices pushing him out of the headlines, people might have forgotten Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada and the troubles he’s seen following his explosive Senate testimony on the National Broadband Network deal between the government and China’s ZTE Corp.
He has been abducted and literally taken for a ride, grilled at a Senate inquiry, maligned by some Church leaders who said he shouldn’t be hailed as a hero, charged with graft and perjury, kept under protective custody by the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines (AMRSP), deprived of work and income since February, and driven to subsist on donations and the family savings.
But “no regrets,” said Lozada of his exposé on the scuttled NBN-ZTE project that implicated several high-ranking government officials, as well as President Macapagal-Arroyo’s husband. “Given the chance, I’d do it again,” he told the Inquirer on Aug. 4 at La Salle Green Hills.
Six months after his Senate testimony, Lozada and wife Violet continue to reap retribution. They are fending off at least six cases charging them with perjury, malversation, graft -- and even theft, filed by a woman they swear they’ve never met.
The family has also remained in AMRSP custody, unable to go home since Feb. 5. On that day, Violet made a public appeal for her husband’s safety after receiving a text message from him saying he had been abducted by police officers who met him at the airport claiming they were there to block a Senate order for his arrest.
Dwindling resources
On top of the court cases that the Lozada lawyer, Rex Fernandez, described as “pure, pure harassment,” the couple have to cope with dwindling resources that make simple pleasures like malling and dining out with their five children a logistical nightmare. “Mas marami pa sila sa ’min (They outnumber us),” Lozada sighed of the eight or nine security escorts detailed to them.
With Lozada unable to work, they’ve had to dip into their savings to get by, Violet said. (Before his exposé changed his life completely, Lozada was president of Philippine Forest Corp. or Philforest.)
Violet said she herself had had to cut down to 20 percent the time she usually devoted to selling insurance, to avoid unnecessary exposure. And while they’ve been unable to go home for six months now, they have to continue maintaining their household, feeding and paying a number of house help and spending for utilities.
The children are just as affected, with an adolescent son having a “faith crisis,” Violet said. “He said he doesn’t want to believe in God anymore. He said he’s been praying for months but God doesn’t answer. All I could tell him is that this is all part of God’s plan, and therefore it must be good.”
But the boy was unconvinced, Violet recalled. “He answered, ‘I don’t think it’s God’s plan. Tao lang ang may gawa nito’ (This is the handiwork of people).”
Nothing heroic
Despite all the aggravation, Lozada firmly believes he did the right thing.
“I did it to keep my body and soul together,” he declared. “There was nothing heroic about it. I did not do it to gain public approval. That was just an unintended consequence. I’m glad I did it because I’ve proven to myself that I can resist the lure of power, money and fame.”
Violet has a more pragmatic reason for approving her husband’s public testimony: “If he had kept silent, [the government] might have taken steps to keep it that way. His abduction at the airport was leading to that. Baka mamaya (for all we know), he’d just be found dead, and they’d make up stories to explain it away. That’s why Jun decided to talk after the airport incident. At least he would have told the truth.”
Charges galore
The exposé changed her life drastically, said Violet, 43. “I used to be a simple housewife content to take care of my children. Ang babaw-babaw ko nga (I was never profound). I wasn’t even an activist and I’ve never joined a rally in my life. I had a simple, uncomplicated life.”
For seeking help through the media to recover her husband from his abductors, Violet found herself facing arrest for perjury.
“I’m not a lawyer, so I’m not familiar with the legal process involved, but there’s something amiss about my arrest order being sent almost a month after the resolution was passed. The resolution was dated May 29, but we received it only on June 23. On June 13, an arrest warrant was already issued and I had to post a P6,500 bail bond or I would have gone to jail,” she said.
Some of the charges are as absurd, Violet added. One was filed by a woman who supposedly recognized the couple as having asked her for directions to Portofino in Batangas.
The woman claimed that after hitching a ride with the Lozadas, she forgot her portfolio with P113,200 in their car. She said that when the Lozadas failed to return it, she filed theft charges against them.
“How is that possible?” Violet said. “Jun and I have never traveled together to Portofino. I’ve never even heard of the place until the case was filed. The day of the incident was also a weekday, which meant that my husband would have used a company car with an official driver. Wouldn’t it be the driver who’d ask for directions, and not Jun?”
Aside from that theft case filed by a Milagros Garcia on June 16 in Muntinlupa City, the couple are each facing a perjury charge, filed by Michael Defensor, touted as Ms Arroyo’s troubleshooter, against Lozada at the Manila Office of the City Prosecutor on July 10, and by Senior Supt. Paul Mascarinas against Violet at the Manila Metropolitan Trial Court on Feb. 21.
‘Harassment cases’
The National Bureau of Investigation through Allan Contado also filed cases at the Ombudsman—a malversation case against Lozada on June 6, a criminal case for graft against Lozada and Philforest VP Gerardo Cariño on July 16, and an administrative case against the two men, also on July 16, for “gross neglect of duty and grave dishonesty.”
Through its president Ruth Vasquez, Babae Ka, a party-list group said to be affiliated with the administration, has also requested official records of Lozada’s Senate testimony. Vasquez said Babae Ka would file graft charges against Lozada because “he had already admitted his guilt” about some wrongdoing as Philforest president.
They have yet to receive the court papers, the couple said.
“These are apparently harassment cases meant to keep us and our lawyers busy,” Lozada said. “They’re like a factory, manufacturing all these suits to make sure that we have to go out of our way to file counteraffidavits, knowing that going out these days is always a major operation for us.”
He shook his head and added: “Instead of the justice system being the refuge of victims, it has become a tool to bring further injustice. Can you imagine the NBI being the complainant, the investigator and the judge all rolled into one, since the Department of Justice is its mother agency?”
Kidnapping case buried
And forget about Lady Justice being blind, Lozada said. “I filed a kidnapping case against the police six months ago, but there’s been no action until now. Nabaon na (It’s been buried). But when it’s the government that files charges, ayun, within two months, an arrest warrant is out.”
Most of the cases are in the preliminary investigation stage, said Lozada’s lawyer Fernandez, who also handles the amparo case filed by the family after Lozada’s abduction. (The writ of amparo allows people to seek the courts’ help in locating missing kin or suspected victims of human rights violations by making the concerned government agencies accountable to the courts for their action.)
The lawyers’ groups helping the Lozadas pro bono have also filed a motion to quash the perjury case against Violet.
“Any judge worth his mettle would know that the cases deserve to be dismissed outright because this is pure, pure harassment meant to tie up the Lozadas, keep them busy, rob them of peace of mind and ruin them financially,” Fernandez said.
The other Lozada cases have been distributed among the members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Ateneo Human Rights Center and National Union of People’s Lawyers.
‘Unexpected grace’
It is this “genuine affection of strangers” that Lozada finds most touching and “an unexpected grace” from his ordeal.
“Every day I thank God for the love, respect and kindness of these people whom I never even imagined I would get to meet. I also got to know who my real friends are,” he said.
The weekly forum where he is able to talk with the urban and rural poor is another bonus. Said Lozada: “I get to connect my situation to their plight. I tell them how corruption is the most widespread violence against the poor and how the e-VAT (value-added tax) on petroleum products should have been used to give them basic services like public education, public health, public transport …
Time for involvement
“The most common question people ask about the NBN-ZTE deal is, Makikinabang ba kami riyan (What’s in it for us)? I have to tell them that, bottom line, most government projects are done because of kotong (kickback). The P500 dole given to poor families by GMA is mere abuloy (donation), and only the dead are given abuloy. I don’t mince words; I tell it like it is—all this is abuloy politics.”
Lozada said another common question asked by his listeners was: “Sino ang ipapalit (But who will replace GMA)?”
“To that, my response is, Compare the government to an employee who abuses your kindness over and over again. Wouldn’t you drop him even if you haven’t found someone to take over his job?” he said.
Filipinos must “find time to involve themselves,” Lozada said. “They must continue to lend their voices instead of getting overwhelmed by it all. We mustn’t be like that guy who kept praying to God for years to let him win the lotto, until God got tired of listening to him and said, ‘Iho, bumili ka naman ng ticket (So buy a ticket already)! Our problem is, nobody wants to act, nobody wants to move. Lahat, gusto lang makibalato (Everyone just wants a share of the winnings).”
Violet, who had to be persuaded to talk with the media, confessed to feeling less upbeat about their plight. In fact, Lozada admitted, the hardest part of the situation for him was “dealing with Violet’s questions: Where are we headed, when are we going home?”
Gratitude to La Salle
Said Violet: “The La Salle Brothers have been very good to us and provided us everything we need, including scholarship for our children, meals, good accommodations. But it’s not the same as sleeping in your own bed …”
“It’s been very difficult,” said Violet, tearing up. “We have a very young family -- I have a set of Grade 1 twins -- and we can’t make plans. We just live day to day. I’m a planner; I want a sense of control. Instead, I have to learn not to plan so as not to get frustrated. But how can I teach the children to dream, when part of dreaming is planning? Jun tells me, ‘Let’s just go where God leads us.’”
Lozada similarly misses “home, golf and going to bookstores to buy good books, mostly nonfiction.” His favorite at the moment is Stephen Covey’s “To Live, To Love, To Learn and to Leave a Legacy.”
It is the book he uses to teach his kids a few facts about life, he said. “I tell them to look at a four-legged chair. It’s so stable it can carry even a heavy load. I tell them each of the four legs stands for the four principles in this book, and these are what they can use to help them withstand the problems that come their way.”
Opposite of fear
As for himself, Lozada finds comfort in his faith as a way of coping with the situation.
“The opposite of fear is not courage but faith,” he said. “[There will always be] a time of reckoning because the Bible and history will bear out that all evil people will fall. I am confident that the God I believe in will always allow good to triumph.”
Lozada said that with the threats, the harassment suits and the abduction, the thought of death had occasionally entered his mind.
But he has learned to shrug it off, he said. “We can only die once. At least my death would have some meaning.”
