Who is Rodofo Noel “Jun” Lozada Jr. and what does he know about the national broadband project?

Rodolfo Noel “Jun” Lozada Jr.’s name first hit the news when Senate blue ribbon committee chairman Alan Peter Cayetano named him as the key witness in the latest round of hearings starting January 30. But Lozada flew to Hong Kong instead, apparently on official business.

He has since risen from obscurity to national prominence.

Lozada’s testimony at the Senate is supposed to fill the gaps in the statements made by previous witnesses, such as the whistleblower and the ousted Speaker's son, Jose de Venecia III and former economic planning secretary Romulo Neri. De Venecia testified that the broadband deal was overpriced by at least US$200 million because of kickbacks to government officials and to the husband of the President Arroyo.

If his testimony at the Senate will eventually push through, he is expected to provide details on how President Arroyo pressured Neri, through among others, text messages, to approve the project. Neri earlier invoked executive privilege when the senators asked him what President Arroyo instructed him to do after he told her about a P200 million bribe offer to approve the project.

Lozada is also expected to divulge how the broadband project, originally priced at $130 million, eventually became $329 million. He reportedly could name the individuals who benefited or will benefit from the overprice.

Neri reportedly depended on him to discuss the technical details of the project with the proponents from the Department of Transportation and Communication, which was pushing for Chinese state firm ZTE to supply the hardware and software requirements of the broadband project. When asked at the Senate hearing why Neri was allowing officials from the DOTC to review its own proposals, Neri said no one among the Neda staff was proficient in IT, but Lozada was helping out.

Neri to Lozada: ‘Regulate the Greed’

Lozada was said to be present in most meetings that involved the Chinese proponents of the broadband deal, former election commissioner Benjamin Abalos, transportation assistant secretary Lorenzo Formoso III, and Neri. In instances that Neri could not stay throughout some of the meetings, he reportedly trusted Lozada to "regulate the greed."

Neri and Lozada are said to be close friends. It is unclear why Lozada, who was not a NEDA consultant and was head of another government agency, was assigned by Neri to represent him in the meetings on the NBN. In this case, Lozada had no institutional accountability to NEDA.

In our interviews with people who know Lozada, we found out that he’s an effective networker and is socially agile. We also learned that he gave conflicting stories to some of his contacts.

Early on, when his name surfaced as a Senate witness, he asked some people he knew that he be covered by EO 464, which shields Cabinet officials from testifying in the Senate. But he apparently turned around and told others in the Senate that he didn’t want to be under the mantle of EO 464.

Lacson First, Aquino Next

Lozada agreed to be a witness in the Senate investigations only in November 2007 after he "wrestled with his conscience" and sought spiritual guidance. His brother arranged a dinner meeting with Sen. Panfilo Lacson. One of the succeeding meetings was with Neri, who still kept mum about the details of the project's supposed anomalies.

Lozada's brother reportedly approached Lacson way back in September, after Neri's 12-hour testimony at the Senate, because Lozada "feared for his life." Lozada's brother knew Lacson after the latter helped the family during the time a sibling, mistaken as a carnapper, was killed in a police shootout.

Lozada's testimony was moved to January since another sibling reportedly passed away in December.

We gathered that Lozada, who was starting to be identified as a “Lacson witness,” wanted to disengage from the former police chief, and tried to seek the assistance of another senator, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.  But, as of this writing, Aquino and Lozada have yet to meet.

How Lozada Met Neri

Lozada, who is in his mid 40's and whose father is said to be an immigrant from China, is a former IT executive with a global company, Alcatel. He reportedly said that the Philippines has been good to his parents and his family so that he wants to repay the country by  going public with what he knows about the NBN project.

Lozada has an electronics and communications engineering degree from the University of Santo Tomas. He is married and has three kids.

He was introduced to Neri in the early 2000's when the concept of distance learning for elementary students in poor areas of the country, especially those in Mindanao, was first considered. At that time, the now $329 million broadband project and the $500 million-plus cyber-education project, were packaged as just one project that cost only $23 million.

Neri reportedly liked the project idea and even helped source the funds for its pilot test, which Lozada assisted to implement.

Lozada, however, never had any official government designation as an IT expert to Neda or other agencies.

We learned that his entry into the government bureaucracy was through the distance-learning project, which paved the way for him to get involved in other efforts to reduce poverty and curb the insurgency. One of them was a project on the reforestation of denuded forests.

Reforestation and Political Network

When politician Mike Defensor took over as environment secretary in 2004, he eventually appointed Lozada as president and CEO of Philippine Forest Corporation. Lozada's 20-year experience in managerial and executive positions in the private sector was supposed to have prepared him for the job.

Philippine Forest, or PhilForest, is a government-owned and controlled corporation registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 24, 2006. It was originally envisioned to reduce billions of pesos of reforestation cost by about 70 percent. Local government officials were to be tapped to organize the communities to provide free labor before reaping their financial fruits, while municipal resources are mobilized for inputs such as seedlings.

This self-reliant approach has since evolved to become a more commercial enterprise. PhilForest now focuses on massive propagation of Jethropa, a drought-resistant crop, to produce biodiesel for the domestic and foreign markets. Foreign and local investments are also to be tapped, which explains why Neri, himself a supporter of alternative energy sources, sits on the board of PhilForest.

Other members of PhilForest's board are the heads of the environment department, the agrarian reform department, and the National Resources Development Corp (NRDC). PhilForest operates as a corporate arm of the NRDC, which is under the environment department.

Lozada's job involved a lot of interaction with local politicians whose support is needed to get the project to run smoothly in the provinces.

He is seen as someone harboring his own political ambitions, too. A political career would cap his years in the private sector, which already afforded him a comfortable life, with expensive cars and a big house in Pasig.

He is also a fan of Jose Rizal and reads avidly on the national hero. A former official who has worked with him describes him as someone who has quickly learned the art of political networking.

PHOTO CREDIT: video grab from ANC by the Philippine Star

SEE RELATED STORIES:

- Senate Wants ZTE Contract Re-computed
- Computing the Overpriced ZTE
- Senate Wants Absent ZTE Witness Arrested
- Mike Arroyo Promised $70 M in Broadband Deal, Says De Venecia
- GMA Undermined Neda in Getting Broadband Deal Approval
- Neri, JDV III Lied – Abalos
- Abalos Offered Me P200M – Neri
- GMA Played Golf with Businessmen Who Bagged Broadband Deal
- Mike Arroyo pushed for ZTE deal - de Venecia
- Abalos' Golfing Buddy Close to ‘Wiretappers'

---

INTERACT WITH THIS ARTICLE