“Who would like a life like this? Grabe na presyo ang magmahal sa bayan. Ito ang kinakatatakutan ko eh.” (Love of country exacts a heavy price. This is what I've been fearing.)With these words, former government executive Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. summed up his feelings about testifying in the Senate and revealing corruption in the multimillion dollar broadband deal between the government and China's ZTE Corp.Lozada was catapulted to national prominence after failing to show up in a Senate inquiry on the ZTE deal and his mysterious disappearance at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport last Tuesday.His statements in an early morning press conference on February 7 revealed alleged efforts of Malacañang to stop him from appearing in the Senate to the point of abducting him at the country's main international airport.In the press conference, Lozada revealed that President Arroyo's husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, and former elections chief Benjamin Abalos Sr. backed ZTE's proposal for the national broadband network project.Lozada, who served as consultant for the NBN project, admitted that he did not want to appear before the upper chamber's inquiry because he could not lie about the alleged irregularities in the $329-milion broadband deal.On Monday, Lozada and other resource persons were subjected to 10 hours of grilling by senators on Lozada's alleged abduction. Throughout the hearing, Lozada reiterated that he was kidnapped at the airport, which ran counter to the officials' accounts that Lozada was given police protection and was free to move about.“The price is simply too much. Yung mga nanloloko sa bayan after the hearing, uuwi sa komportable, magagarang bahay nila. Nandun sa lahat ng mga comfort, lahat ng kaginhawahan ng yaman nila. Pero yung mga katulad ko, natutulog ka sa sofa. Wala kang kasama. So I really find it so unfair,” Lozada told ABS-CBN morning show “Umagang Kay Ganda.”(Those who have been fooling the people will be going home to their ostentatious, comfortable houses. They are all there with the comfort of their wealth. But the likes of me, we sleep alone on the sofa).Asked whose testimony during Monday's hearing irritated him the most, Lozada said: “I don’t want to name personalities. Halos lahat naman equal magnitude. Ayokong humantong sa personal na away ang ganito. Pag nasabi ka naman ng totoo, masasaktan naman din naman sila di ba? Bahala na ang tao mag-decide."(All of the testimonies have equal magnitude. I don’t want this fight to get personal. If you tell the truth, they would be hurt anyway, right? Let the people decide for themselves)Lozada said he had no political agenda when he told the Senate everything he knew about ZTE-NBN deal.“I did it jut because I came to a point that I can’t take it anymore. I would be lying to the whole nation if I push through with the press conference that time because they had been trying to let me sign documents denying about the abduction, denying that I know anything about ZTE.“I know I [brought] trouble to myself. I took my family in harm's way. (sic) Just like I told in my press conference, sometimes it’s [worth] taking a risk for this country,” Lozada said.
No comments:
Post a Comment