The whistleblower in the ZTE corruption scandal during the Arroyo administration, Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada, is heading for prison after the Supreme Court upheld his 2016 conviction in a graft case involving his brother.
In 2016, the Sandiganbayan convicted Lozada, former president and chief executive officer of the government-owned Philippine Forest Corp., of graft, for awarding leasehold rights over 6.5 hectares of public land under the agency’s “Lupang Hinirang” program in 2007 to his brother, Jose Orlando Lozada.
The Court also sustained the conviction of Jose Orlando, who was then a contractual consultant and confidential assistant to his brother.
In upholding the Sandiganbayan, the Court denied the appeal of the Lozada brothers who sought to overturn their conviction.
It said both brothers would serve sentences of six years and one month at the minimum, to 10 years and one day at the maximum.
The Office of the Ombudsman filed criminal charges against the brother on Dec. 29, 2011.
In the graft case, the Ombudsman said Jun Lozada had “willfully, unlawfully, and feloniously, through evident bad faith and/or manifest partiality, award the leasehold right over 6.599 hectares of public land under the Lupang Hinirang Program of the Philippine Forest Corporation, to his brother (Jose Orlando).”
This was “despite knowledge that the latter did not undergo the prescribed application process, when as President and CEO of the Philippine Forest Corporation, it was his duty to award...
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