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A
RANKING Malacañang official on Tuesday confirmed that he
had “loaned” P500,000 to former Philippine Forest Corp.
president Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. when the latter
informed him that he was running out of funds while
abroad—and not to keep him from testifying at the Senate
hearing on the national broadband network-deal scandal.
In a
statement, Deputy Executive Secretary Manuel Gaite
expressed disappointment at how his “efforts at helping
Jun Lozada have been twisted by him,” and wondered aloud
whether he had been set up by someone he only wanted to
help.
“I wish
to state that no government fund was used in the money
that I gave to Lozada. With the way Jun Lozada has
twisted my response to his personal appeal…deceived me
about his dire circumstances, publicly and repeatedly
dragged my name into a controversy I have no personal
knowledge of, I regret that my act of compassion for his
was taken advantage of, and was used to suit his story,”
said Gaite.
He said
that he decided to loan Lozada the money “upon Jun’s
insistence,” after the latter sent a text message to him
that it was so cold where he was—which Gaite thought to
be London—and was running out of funds.
“He also
said in his text, ‘Hindi ko na kaya ang ganitong
buhay,’ which I assumed referred to the threats to
his life he had been so afraid of before he left. I
believed him, I pitied him. That text came at about
2 a.m. of
February 3, 2008. When my wife saw the text and asked me
about it, she also felt pity for him, and asked if there
is any way I could help him,” Gaite said.
He said
he handed over the money to Lozada’s brother, Owe, on
February 4 and made him sign an acknowledgment receipt,
copies of which he furnished the media, as the amount
“was something that I considered he has to account for
when he comes back from
London.”
“I was
surprised when I learned that he was coming home already
the day after I gave the money. Did he really need the
money, or was he just baiting me? It is not true, as
claimed by Lozada, that the money I gave him through his
brother was meant to prevent him from appearing in the
Senate hearing nor name him tell a lie if he appears in
the hearing,” Gaite said.
He also
reiterated that it was Lozada, through Commission on
Higher Education Chairman Romulo Neri, who had sought
his legal advice regarding his Senate testimony and that
he did not arrange Lozada’s travel documents nor funded
the trip.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Lozada, who has
accused the administration of conspiring to prevent him
from testifying at the Senate, appears to be part of a
“grand design” to destabilize the administration.
“He has
his own scheme, grand designs....We feel that many
things that are happening now are still part of the
destabilization that some people would like to do, to
weaken the administration....They never stop at body
punching in the hope of weakening the resolve of the
national leadership, but it will not work,” Ermita said.
Neri,
however, continues to sympathize with his friend, Lozada,
whom he believes is “forced” to make statements that
hurt their friendship.
“If
there’s one thing he was trying to protect and he was
cherishing, that was our friendship. That’s why he gets
teary-eyed, and I am too, because these senators are
destroying [our friendship]. As for me, I want to assure
Jun that our friendship still stays despite what the
senators did.... He has nothing to apologize to me for,
because I understand what he’s going through,” Neri
said.
He
reiterated his call to bid out the national broadband
network project using the same scope of work for all
participants to “see who’s telling the truth.”
“Let us
bid out the project so that we can know who is telling
the truth, if it is overpriced or not. Joey [de Venecia]
is saying it’s overpriced, Arescom is saying it’s
overpriced. But the Department of Transportation and
Communications says [it is like comparing] apples and
oranges because they are different in scope. So let’s
bid it out under the same scope so we can see who is
telling the truth,” he said. |
