Lozada faces kidnappers for first time at DOJ

MANILA, Philippines – The Senate’s key witness in the scrapped national broadband network-ZTE deal, Rodolfo Lozada Jr., yesterday faced his supposed “kidnappers” for the first time since his alleged snatching at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport last Feb. 5.

At the first hearing conducted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Lozada’s kidnapping and attempted murder complaints, the respondents filed their respective counter-affidavits before a panel of prosecutors headed by Senior State Prosecutor Emilie Fe delos Santos.

The respondents were Environment Secretary Jose Atienza Jr., Police Security and Protection Office (PSPO) deputy chief Senior Superintendent Paul Mascarinas; airport security agent Roger Valeroso; and former PSPO chief and now Ilocos police director Chief Superintendent Romeo Hilomen.

Other respondents, Philippine National Police chief Director General Avelino Razon Jr. and airport security chief retired Brig. Gen. Angel Atutubo, deferred the submission of their counter-affidavits.

Felisberto Verano, lawyer of Razon, told the panel that his client will submit his counter-affidavit on April 8 as he is in France attending a meeting of the International Police (Interpol).

For his part, Atutubo, through his lawyer Jolan Lorenzo, told the panel that his client has yet to review “newly submitted evidence.”

Lorenzo was referring to a compact disc that was submitted to the panel yesterday by Lozada’s lawyer Edwin Lacierda which contains a video clip from the airport’s closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras earlier presented by Lozada at the Senate.

The CCTV clip supposedly shows Lozada being accosted by unidentified men after arriving at the airport from Hong Kong and a man making a “slit-throat” gesture with his hand.

But Lacierda said the CCTV clip they gave the panel came from the airport and was already seen in Senate hearings.

Lorenzo handed the panel a compact disk containing what he said was the CCTV footage of Lozada’s arrival at the airport and suggested that he and Lacierda exchange compact discs.

Lacierda asked Verano if the PNP could furnish his client with a “rogues gallery” of all the PSPO officers on duty for the month of February.

But Verano said that what Lacierda was asking was no longer part of the criminal procedure.

The panel set the clarificatory hearing on April 8 for the submission of evidence and other counter-affidavits.

Last Feb. 22, after snubbing a fact-finding hearing by the DOJ, Lozada appeared at the department and filed kidnapping and attempted murder charges against Atienza and Razon.

Also named respondents in the complaint were Atutubo, Mascariñas, Valeroso and a number of John and Peter Does “acting under their control, instructions and directions.”

Speaking to reporters after submitting his counter-affidavit, Atienza reiterated that it was Lozada who had asked for police protection.

Lozada, for his part, thanked the DOJ for starting the hearing of his complaint.  – Mike Frialde