Lozada illegally held by PNP, wife says; Razon denies claim

Rodolfo Lozada Jr, a witness in a Senate corruption inquiry that has implicated President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's husband, was taken into police custody Wednesday against his will, his wife said in a petition seeking his release. Lozada faced an arrest warrant from the Senate for failing to attend a hearing last week when police whisked him out of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport after he returned from an official trip abroad, authorities and his family said. Lozada is a consultant in evaluating proposals for the alleged bribery-tainted NBN project. His wife, Violeta, filed a Supreme Court petition seeking his release, while opposition senators said he was ''kidnapped'' to prevent him from exposing alleged corruption in a government broadband contract. National Police Chief Avelino Razon denied that Lozada was being held against his will, saying one of his siblings had requested ''protective custody'' for him because ''they fear for his safety.'' He did not say who was threatening Lozada, or who asked that he be placed under protection. Police will hand Lozada over to the Senate if he agrees to testify, Razon said. Lozada served as a technical consultant to former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri at a time officials were discussing the US$330-million broadband contract with a Chinese company, Zhong Xiao Telecommunications Equipment Corp. Last year, Jose ''Joey'' de Venecia III, a losing bidder and the son of the recently ousted speaker of the House of Representatives, told a Senate inquiry investigating the deal that Mrs Arroyo's husband was promised a US$70 million kickback. Jose Miguel ''Mike'' Arroyo has denied any wrongdoing. De Venecia III also claimed the President asked Neri why he did not take a P500-million bribe allegedly offered by a former election chief Benjamin Abalos to approve the deal. Neri told the Senate he turned down the offer but refused to link Mrs Arroyo or her husband to the scandal. Opposition senators believe Lozada may be the missing link in their effort to prove the President and her husband were involved in approving the deal, which was eventually scrapped. Sen. Allan Peter Cayetano, head of the Senate committee investigating the deal, denounced Lozada's detention, saying it was meant to discourage other would-be witnesses to corruption. Another opposition senator, Panfilo Lacson, a former national police chief, accused Razon of ''brazenly lying'' in claiming Lozada was in protective custody. He said the detention ''only validates information that Lozada will certainly bring his testimony right at the doorstep'' of the presidential palace. Carlos Medina Jr., a lawyer with the Ateneo Human Rights Center representing Lozada's wife, described explanations that Lozada's family had sought police protection for him as ''an afterthought.'' ''Otherwise, we would not have filed the petition'' to release him," he said. The brother of Lozada Jr on Wednesday also asked the Supreme Court to compel the PNP to produce the witness in the botched broadband network deal with ZTE Corp. The petition for amparo filed by Arthur Lozada came several hours after his brother's wife Violeta filed a petition for habeas corpus before the high court earlier in the day. "Kung ipo-produce lang ang body, di pa tapos ang issue. He was taken against his will, he was restrained (It is not enough that the PNP produce Lozada's body. The issue is, Lozada was taken against his will, he was restrained)," Arthur's lawyer Reynaldo Principe said in a radio interview. - GMANews with a report from AP