To those who are not yet aware, the NBN-ZTE Scandal has a new ’secret’ witness: CEO of the Philippine Forest Corporation Rodolfo Noel I. Lozada, Jr. Lozada implicated that FG Jose Miguel Arroyo and Former COMELEC Chairman Benjamin Abalos in the said scandal.

Lozada left the country hours before January 30 Senate hearing he was supposed to attend. This prompted the senators to issue a warrant of arrest against him. As soon as he returned to the country, the Senate was not able to get him as he was taken away by suspected presidential guards. In a petition seeking his release filed before the Supreme Court, his wife Violeta said he was taken into police custody against his will. (from GMANews.tv)

Inquirer.net writes:

Former Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. denied that he threatened the life of Rodolfo Noel “Jun” Lozada Jr. and claimed that Lozada even went back to the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club in Mandaluyong City several times after the threat was allegedly made on January 18, 2007.

Abalos said Lozada, the Senate’s star witness on the controversial $329-million contract with ZTE Corp. for the national broadband network (NBN), went back to Wack Wack several times in February, 2007 after the death threat was allegedly made.

“Sinabi daw niya tinakot ko siya noong January 18 (He claims I threatened him on January 18). At that time, I was still president of Wack Wack,” Abalos said during a live television interview at the ABS-CBN studios in Quezon City. Lozada was also being interviewed live, although he was at La Salle Greenhills in Mandaluyong. The “face-off” happened via split-screen on television.

Lozada testified before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing that Abalos threatened his life by saying: “P.I, ka, huwag kang pumunta sa Wack Wack sa Mandaluyong kundi ipapapatay kita (You S.O.B., don’t show yourself at Wack Wack or I’ll have you killed).”

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