$130M kickback, roles
of Abalos, Mike bared ZTE witness surfaces
BY DENNIS GADIL
NBN-ZTE witness Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr.
surfaced at dawn yesterday and accused former Elections chair
Benjamin Abalos Sr. of pushing for a national broadband project,
which would earn him a hefty $130 million commission and in the
process implicated Mike Arroyo, the President's husband.
Lozada is expected to reveal all he knows
about the deal before the resumption of the Senate inquiry
today.
In a press conference, where he was
accompanied by Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo and
several nuns, at around 2 a.m. in La Salle Greenhills, Lozada
said Abalos was pushing for the broadband project through a loan
from China as against the build-operate-transfer (BOT) proposal
of Jose "Joey" de Venecia III, son of former Speaker Jose de
Venecia Jr.
THE Supreme Court yesterday issued a writ of
amparo directing government authorities to explain their actions
on the "abduction" of NBN-ZTE deal prime witness Rodolfo Noel
Lozada Jr. upon his arrival last Feb. 5 even as he was already
released and is in Senate custody.
In a four-page resolution following a special
en banc session, the high court also resolved to consolidate the
petition for writ of habeas corpus filed by Lozada's wife
Violeta and the writ of amparo filed by his brother Arturo, and
referred the case to the Court of Appeals for hearing on Feb.
14.
The respondents were told to make a verified
return of the writ in five days before Conrado Vasquez Jr., CA
presiding justice.
THE lawyer of First Gentleman Jose Mi-guel
Arroyo yesterday said his client is not bothered by the
allegations by ZTE witness Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. that he was
involved in the deal, but was annoyed by the lies being peddled
to the public and the media.
"He has no reason to react since there was no
direct accusation or evidence against him," Ruy Alberto Rondain
said in a press conference at the LTA building in Makati.
Rondain said he requested a short meeting
with the First Gentleman, who had just arrived from Europe, to
discuss the issue but the latter said he did not want to get
involved in politics.
