MANILA, Philippines – On June 3, Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada and his brother Orlando surrendered to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) after the Supreme Court (SC) affirmed their conviction on their 2016 graft case.
Lozada is most known for being the whistleblower behind the botched $329-million (P17-billion) National Broadband Network (NBN) deal with Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE, from 2007.
His exposé led to one of the biggest controversies that hit Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s administration, wherein he uncovered how the former president’s husband Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, former Commission on Elections chair Benjamin Abalos, and former Cabinet officials were taking bribes from Chinese officials in the NBN-ZTE deal to digitize the bureaucracy.
The Lozada brothers now face a jail sentence of 6 to 10 years after the SC upheld their conviction. Arroyo, Abalos and other key officials accused by Lozada were acquitted by the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan.
How did this happen? Here’s a rundown of how Lozada went from Arroyo administration whistleblower to being convicted of graft.
Lozada is an electronics engineer who served as the president and chief executive officer of the government-controlled Philippine Forest Corporation (FPC) – under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources – from 2007 to 2008.
He also served as a technical consultant to former socioeconomic planning secretary Romulo Neri on the Philippine national...
The HHS secretary touted a proposed $1.1 billion IHS budget increase but stayed silent on Medicaid cuts and a rollback of childhood vaccination efforts U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robe...