Palace says Lozada ready to self-destruct

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang predicted yesterday that Senate witness Rodolfo Lozada would soon “self-destruct” as more inconsistencies in his testimonies and his character begin to surface and be exposed to the public.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, however, said it is disturbing that many students appear to idolize him when he himself admitted to committing many irregularities.

“My jolly, some are even comparing him to the martyred Sen. (Benigno) Ninoy Aquino and that’s unfortunate,” Ermita said in a telephone interview.

He said Lozada made it appear that he was pushing for reforms but could not fully explain the alleged corruption in the Philippine Forest Corp. when Lozada was still president of the state-owned firm.

“He (Lozada) is always saying that he never claimed to be a saint in explaining the irregularities he committed as disclosed during Senate hearings by Sen. (Juan Ponce) Enrile and Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago but that’s all he says about these allegations,” he said.

Since he surfaced and testified before the Senate hearing on the alleged anomalies in the scrapped $329-million national broadband network (NBN) deal with ZTE Corp. of China, Lozada was actually vague and inconsistent in his reasons why he decided to testify.

Ermita said the witness previously claimed that his appearance in the Senate was a sudden decision since he did not want to testify. However, as the hearings progressed, it was learned that as early as November, he had been communicating with some opposition senators in preparation for his testimony.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye earlier said while Lozada may appear to have many supporters, a majority of Filipinos are actually supportive of President Arroyo.

“I’m sure the President has her share of supporter among the students, even among the religious who are teaching in these schools, if they’re talking of support,” Bunye said.

“In terms of representation, the governors who represent large constituencies, the mayors, the congressmen, they are among the more solid supporters of the President and there are also many who do not believe in Mr. Lozada,” he said.