Indeed, there is God

On Saturday, the 26th of January, while motoring towards Laguna, I read an item in the papers which said that a subpoena had been issued to Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. to appear before the Senate on January 30. That was not a surprise. I knew about it long before. What worried me is that his persona was now in full public view. What worried me was how Malacañang would operate on him, and how he would react to the pressures.

Flashback to sometime in late August, just about the time when the ZTE-NBN deal’s scandalous details were unraveling. Someone from government, a middle-level executive of a sensitive agency actually, sent me a text message. This guy has been a career public servant since Cory Aquino days, and who from time to time would send tips on goings-on in what he himself describes as "the dirtiest administration ever". His text message told me that there is a "Jun Lozada" who knows the details of this NBN deal. I asked, "not the congressman from Negros? Pidal’s local nemesis?" To which he replied, "No. He is with Philippine Forest, ‘yung jatropha. Very close kay Romy."

We learned that one of Jun’s older brothers was gunned down by policemen under Reynaldo Berroya, then head of the "intelligence group" under Leandro Mendoza, the guy who was appointed by Gloria to head the PNP right after Edsa Dos. It was a case of "mistaken" identity. Berroya’s men thought the dead Lozada was their target, simply because he drove a vehicle that resembled in make and color that which they were pursuing. The Lozada’s wanted justice. Through friends, they asked Sen. Ping Lacson for possible assistance. But Ping was then Gloria’s targeted "political enemy No. 1". Little could he stop the harassment of Jun and his family, by those who wanted them to stop the pursuit of justice.

Lacson established contact with a member of the family, who told him that indeed Rodolfo Noel knew the details, and was fearful for his and his family’s safety. Surely the perpetrators of the crime were making an inventory of the "guys who knew" and since Jun was not a high-profile secretary like Romy Neri, he just might be rubbed out, gangland style. (Didn’t I write countless times that this government is a criminal syndicate?)

Dead end. He wrote an affidavit that revealed what he knew, in case anything happened to him and his family. Apparently Romy Neri knew about this, and therefore they would protect each other from harm’s way, if the criminals knew that there was such a sworn statement. Particularly chilling was an overheard statement uttered by a high official once to his president, "Ma’am, isang preso lang ang katapat niyan" in a crisis meeting of sorts.

Before the Senate meantime, we heard Joey de Venecia. We heard Romy damn Abalos, but he would not tell the whole truth. It led to the resignation in disgrace of the Comelec chair, the clear "fall guy" for a deal Malacañang had to suspend (though "cancel" was the word used), even if some of the fabled millions of dollars had already been advanced by the miserable Fan Yang and Yu Yong, on a deal that even the then Chinese ambassador, Li Junjun, was so anxious to clinch.

Then in the morning of November 29, Sen. Sonny Trillanes and Gen. Danilo Lim walked out of a Makati courtroom and into the Peninsula. It was a failed adventure, except that Ronnie Puno the DILG head and Geary Barias, the NCRPO chief, overdid their hand. The story that unfolded was about the ugliness of fascism unleashed, and not another extra-constitutional misadventure.

On the afternoon of December 3, Senator Lacson called, and asked if I could join him for dinner at Inagiku of the Makati Shangri-la (Abalos’ favorite "souping" hole, except that the guy prefers Chinese food from the nearby Shang Palace). In the private room was Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr.

There were several other meetings, all before Christmas. He was ready to talk his mind and bare his heart out. But nothing happens just before Christmas in this country where the work clock stops when Simbang Gabi begins.

On the first working day of the year, I talked to my friend Atty. Rudy Quimbo, the chief legal counsel of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, who was before that the recently retired Senator Juan B. Flavier’s chief of staff. I asked him to help arrange a subpoena for Lozada. In time, the Blue Ribbon set it for January 28, 2008.

True to my fears that Saturday morning (January 23) when news about Lozada’s subpoena appeared, by late Sunday evening Lozada had started to feel the intense pressure from the Boss Woman’s henchmen. These intensified through Monday and Tuesday. While I was having breakfast with Senator Lacson on Tuesday, January 29, the phone rang. Lozada was not going to testify. He would leave the following day.

We were crestfallen. Another Joc Joc? The coven of evil had triumphed once again. God! I muttered to myself, why do you allow evil to win every crucial round?

In the short Blue Ribbon hearing of Wednesday, January 30, Senator Enrile asked that a warrant be issued for Lozada. Senator Lacson also asked that a similar warrant of arrest be served upon Neri. Both passed.

But Lozada left word that he would sort his life out, and that soon he would return. He needed the space, but what would his soul-searching reach – cop-out to evil, or blaze towards heroic defiance? Neri on the other hand asked the Supreme Court to stop the warrant from being served. They did, and oh, set the hearing on March 4.

Once again, we were crestfallen. But on Friday night, while we were having dinner with some friends, a breakthrough occurred. A hasty meeting in the wee hours of Saturday was arranged. What was the best way to get him straight into the Senate without the coven’s agents getting at his throat? There were scenarios of getting him in by private plane into Laoag, definitely not Clark, which is now named after the Boss Woman’s father. All too risky, all too difficult. Lunch in a small restaurant whose food I loved was set for later that day.

The final plan was for Sen. Lacson and I to fly to Hong Kong on Sunday morning. Two other senators, one from the minority and another from the majority, would fly in at later flights. Another senator would man the welcoming crew. We made arrangements to meet Lozada in his temporary place of exile, and we were to fly back Monday morning (February 4). His escorts would be three of the most high-profile senators of the realm. Let Cusi or whoever from NAIA try to stop them, we thought.

But just as I was about to proceed to the airport, Senator Lacson called. "He prefers to come home alone. Ang sabi niya, baka daw ma-taint ang kanyang testimony kung susunduin siya doon."

Another trough after a wave of hopes. God! What a roller coaster ride.

I went to the Batasan on Monday to cheer up Joey de Venecia who would watch as his father was about to be slain by more than a hundred knives. We wished Manong Joe would have said much much more than a pile of angst. Maybe next time.

Past noon of the following day, I learned that Jun would arrive on a late afternoon Cathay Pacific flight. By three I got worried. Everyone and his media mother knew about Jun’s return. And indeed, so did Atutubo and his masters in the stinking palace beside the stinking river. God! Why do you punish your people so?

It was a long, agonizing night. Hearing Jun’s wife Violeta and elder sister Carmen on radio that early evening was so heart-rending. The following morning, we heard the acolytes of the Boss Woman falling all over the place, spreading lies that only dolts, and yes, crocodiles, could swallow. Eduardo Ermita even had gall to say that Lozada was preparing a new affidavit, tell-tale that he would become another Udong Mahusay.

On Wednesday, the eve of the Year of the Rat, I went to a Taoist temple, as has been my wont for almost a decade, and listened, along with a motley crowd that included Nikki Coseteng and Cory Quirino, James Dy and Vic Ziga along with wife and daughter, Oscar Orbos and my friend Nixon Kua, and surprise, Gen. Balajadia, the Senate sergeant-at-arms, together with Sandiganbayan sheriff Ed Urieta. Just before midnight, the Taoist Syhu said the year was not going to be good. This rat brings troubles, he said, and that added to the feeling of depression.

And then on Thursday morning, after a friend tried calling frantically for hours, I finally woke up to the news of Jun Lozada’s "great escape" from the coven of evil.

He was surrounded by nuns, and beside him sat Bishop Pabillo, the progressive thinker in an archdiocese where moral sensitivity seems to have been petrified.. My friend Bro. Armin emceed the surreal scene, and there was Bro. Felipe. Jun was in the safest of hands.

Quietly I sat on the bed, and asked God for forgiveness. Why Lord, did I ever doubt that you would move, in your own good time, and in your own good way?

On Friday, as Jun Lozada told the truth about the "dysfunctional procurement system" in a government where policy and programs are tailored to fit the greed of the politically powerful, I thought – what a great difference God indeed could make.

Had we succeeded in escorting Jun Lozada back home from Hong Kong, the circumstances of his appearance before the Senate would not have had the kind of impact this testimony had. That image of him before the Senate, with nuns as his bodyguards, would hopefully make the people of this benighted land realize that this is a fight between the excessively greedy and those who would not surrender their human dignity, their self-respect, and the decency in their souls.

After the hearing, I chanced upon Bro. Felipe, and we both remarked that God’s hand was in these all.

Indeed there is God.

Are we in this "dark" country able to see His light? Or shall we allow the coven of evil to yet squirm its way through His manifest design?