MANILA, Philippines—Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada Jr., the main witness in the controversial national broadband network (NBN) agreement between the Arroyo administration and China’s ZTE Corp. in 2007, along with his brother Jose Orlando Lozada, has been freed from detention at the national penitentiary, the Bureau of Corrections said on Thursday.
The Lozada brothers were released on May 9 after serving the minimum sentence that made them eligible for parole, Bucor told the Inquirer.
In an interview with ANC on Thursday, Lozada said he found out the news about his release just a few days before it happened.
“It was surreal. So that’s how it feels when something that you have been praying for suddenly comes,” he said.
An IT expert and former president and CEO of the state-owned Philippine Forest Corp. (PFC), Lozada exposed the alleged cost-padding and bribery involved in the $329-million NBN–ZTE deal, which was intended to result in a telecommunications network linking government offices nationwide.
In 2016, the Sandiganbayan’s Fourth Division found him guilty of graft for awarding the lease contract of 6.5 hectares of public land under the PFC’s Lupang Hinirang Program to his brother Orlando without going through the regular application process.
Orlando was also found guilty of graft.
The Supreme Court in 2021 denied the Lozada brothers’ petition for review of the Sandiganbayan’s decision finding them guilty of graft and sentencing them to six to 10 years imprisonment and perpetual...
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