Senate fearful for Lozada

To the Senate, the human rights of Rodolfo Lozada Jr. may have been abused when he was “abducted” Tuesday, apparently by the government’s security forces.

Malacañang said it could not have possibly authorized the national police to snatch Lozada as alleged, because there had been “no abduction” in the first place.

Lozada’s family, meanwhile, has filed petitions for a writ of habeas corpus and a writ of amparo in his behalf before the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The Senate will investigate the incident as a possible case of violation of Lozada’s civil liberties, Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. said Wednesday. He added that the inquiry will be different from that into the National Broadband Network project because this involves human rights. Lozada is a key witness in the Senate probe of that aborted $330-million project.
Villar demanded a full accounting by airport authorities on the “abduction” of Lozada at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. His demand came as the whereabouts of Lozada remained a mystery.

In police custody

Director Genernal Avelino Razon, chief of the Philippine National Police, said Lozada was under the custody of the Police Security Protection Office. But Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, chairman of the Senate blue-ribbon committee, said his men who went to Camp Crame, the police headquarters in Quezon City, said the office had denied having Lozada in its custody.

Villar appeared incredulous at Razon’s claim that Lozada’s family had asked for police protection. “How can that be when I was talking with Lozada’s wife, and she was very distraught over her husband’s whereabouts?” the Senate president asked.

Villar also pointed out that members of Lozada’s family were waiting for Lozada at the arrival area with some senators, media and members of the Senate’s Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms, so they could not have possibly asked for police protection for Lozada.

Lozada’s brother Arthur appeared on television decrying the “abduction” done right at the airport. Lozada arrived on board a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong at 4:40 p.m. Tuesday.
Malacañang said the national police taking Lozada in its custody is a standard procedure in response to his request for protection.

“First of all, there’s no abduction,” Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said. “It’s a police operational matter, and we cannot say that [President Gloria Arroyo] authorized that [‘abduction’] just because it was carried out by the [national police].”

Life in danger

Ermita added that he was informed by the police that Lozada’s brother Arthur had requested security before he arrived in the country because of an alleged threat to his life.

“Upon his arrival, there were personnel who met him there [airport], brought him out because of the threat to his life,” the Executive Secretary said. “Last night, he spoke with his family. They knew all along that he was with police officials. I understand from General Razon [that] he even brought a document [to] the airport attesting to the fact that he [had] requested [the presence of] security forces,” the Executive Secretary said.

When asked whether Malacañang will investigate the “abduction” of Lozada, Ermita said there is no need for any investigation “at this moment.” He added, “Just [what] I’ve told you, [Razon] announced that he [had] acted on the request by Lozada, so I hope all things are clear, and I reiterate that there’s no need for an investigation.”

ZTE hearing

Ermita said it is up to Lozada and his lawyers to decide whether to appear in Senate hearings on the scrapped national broadband deal. “I understand that Mr. Lozada has a company of lawyers, therefore, I’m sure he could be given pointers. I heard that he [had] prepared a written affidavit regarding his position. He could be given proper advice before attending Senate hearings.”
Ask the police
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said it also is up to the national police to provide information to the public after admitting that Lozada is in their custody.
“It would be better if you asked [Razon] about it. We monitored that the police said they are holding Lozada in its custody,” Bunye told reporters. “So as to the details, you better ask [Razon].”

But he clarified that Lozada was not taken by the police “against his will.” He said the former consultant to the technical aspects of the broadband project had been able to talk to his family.
‘Abuse of power’
Whether Lozada went voluntarily, opposition leader and Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay said, will not detract from the Arroyo administration mustering “the kind of arrogance over the years in power.”
“The action is clearly an abuse of power and a violation of civil liberties,” he added in a statement.

The Senate team sent to the international airport was supposed to serve a warrant of arrest on Lozada for failing to attend a hearing of the blue-ribbon committee on the broadband project, but Lozada never came out of the arrival area. Lozada later texted his brother that he was accosted at the airport and taken to the tarmac where he was made to board a waiting vehicle without passing through Customs and Immigration.
Villar chided retired Gen. Angel Atutubo, assistant deputy for security of the Manila International Airport Authority, for saying that the Senate team did not coordinate with airport authorities.

“I don’t know if those persons studied their law,” he said. “It is very clear that we have a warrant of arrest, and they could have talked with us for an orderly serving at the airport. But it seemed that General Atutubo was more interested in the other persons who met Mr. Lozada.”
Villar added that the national police and airport authorities should explain why they prevented the Senate from serving the warrant on Lozada. The witness often sat in place of Romulo Neri in discussions of the broadband project in the Senate hearings. Neri, the former socio-economic planning secretary, was to have been served another arrest warrant, but the Supreme Court on Tuesday stopped it.

More questions

Sen. Benigno Aquino 3rd, one of the senators who went to the airport on Tuesday, said it took Atutubo five hours to announce that it was not he who took Lozada but a certain Senior Police Officer 4 Roger Valeroso. Aquino noted that Camp Crame had denied that anybody by that name was in the police ranks.

“If Valeroso does not exist, then where did Angel Atutubo get his name?” Aquino asked. “By whose authority was he given access to the airport tarmac? By whose authority and on what grounds did the [national police] take Lozada in their custody?”
He also questioned why it took the police more than 12 hours to announce that police personnel had taken custody of Lozada.

“I cannot think of any other explanation for Mr. Atutubo and the [national police’s] prolonged period of silence other than that those hours were used to concoct what appears to be a badly written official story on the fate of Mr. Lozada,” Aquino said.

Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada said the case of Lozada might go the way of Juancho “Udong” Mahusay, a supposed witness in the Jose Pidal account allegedly belonging to President Aroyo’s husband, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo.
Estrada explained that Mahusay, who was “kidnapped” in Tagaytay City, later recanted his testimony.

Sen. Manuel Roxas 2nd also refused to buy the police claim that Lozada’s family had sought police protection.

He said Razon should furnish the Senate a copy of the purported letter.

“This is an absurd situation, considering that the airport is a high-security zone, where people are subject to identity and baggage checks of the most stringent kind,” Roxas said.
Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan said Lozada’s disappearance showed that the downgrading of Philippine airports by the US Federal Aviation Administration was justified.

In the habeas corpus petition filed Wednesday, respondents are Razon, Atutubo, Valeroso, Air Force chief Lt. Gen. Pedrito Cadungog, Assistant Deputy Manager for Operations at the airport authority Octavio Lina, and Presidential Security Group chief Brig. Gen. Romeo Prestoza.
The Supreme Court is set to raffle the case and could decide on it this week.

Regarding Mr Lozada for his safety:

I think opposisyons should keep there security more tighter to Lozada and Madriaga, I have a bad feeling that Ping Lacson will betray the entire oposisyon once again, i hope Lim should keep an eye of him.

Lacson had done betrayals since FPJ run for presidency, he accquired money from the administration, well the oppositions are already split. he will screw us once more, all of us should keep an eye with senator ping lacson.