UPDATE – The Crusade for the Protection of Philippine Interests in Japan is inviting the members of the Filipino community, the Japanese and foreign media to a live telephone and video conference with Jun Lozada for a candid and on the spot question and answer discussion.
This event will be held on July 27, 2008 from 5:30-8:00 p.m. at the Shinbashi Kumin Kaikan (Tel. no. 03-3444-0461) near Ebisu Station, located at 1-27-10 Ebisu, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo. It is a 10- minute walk from Ebisu Station of JR and Hibiya Lines, or a 2-minute walk from the Ebisubashi Stop of the Tokyo Metro bus. For particulars, please contact 03-3491-2408 / Crusade for the Protection of Philippine Interests in Japan.
BACKGROUND (from Press Release):
China’s ZTE Corporation and Arroyo Government’s Broadband Corruption Scandal Witness, Jun Lozada, to Talk Live in Tokyo
Controversies behind the 329-M dollar Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment Limited (ZTE) National Broadband Network contract signed by the Philippine and Chinese governments, witnessed personally by President Arroyo, last April 2007 in China are facts that need to be learned by Filipinos as well as the general public in Japan.
Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada, by his professional affinity to Economic Planning Secretary on-leave Romulo Neri, became intimately involved in the back room (and under-the-table) deal-making. Lozada has so far revealed that the project, by his reckoning, should really have cost about $132-M but that the amount had ballooned to $239-M due to “advances” to the project “fixer/s” including an alleged $130-M “commission” for Mr. Benjamin Abalos, Sr.
Lozada further claims having gotten “instructions” from Secretary Neri to “moderate the greed” of the actors in the scam. Lozada has also said under oath that the “dysfunctional supply-instead-of-need-driven government procurement system” also resulted in kickback-inflated costs in the South and North Luzon Railroad rehabilitation and extension projects, also funded from generous loans from China.