(Photo from Pinoyweekly)
He came out to expose corruption. He named the biggies who allegedly collected millions of pesos grease money from the NBN-ZTE deal. He showed moral courage to reveal the truth. He gave Filipinos hope that moral recovery is still possible even in a very corrupt bureaucracy like the Philippine government.
But his 15 seconds of fame was very short-lived. The following days after his expose were mostly spent for prayers and Masses. That is to pray for his peace and safety.
Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada, the whistleblower in the NBN-ZTE deal scam was abducted, coerced, harassed and charged by several officials and personnel of this government. And for what? For blowing the horn and naming names. For standing up for what is right and for exposing corruption activities of the big names in Philippine government.
The Senate feast on the issue. They conducted investigations in aid of legislation, so to say. They asked Lozada to face the whole world and courageously pointed his finger to the First Family and President Arroyo as the alleged orchestrators of the scandalous NBN-ZTE deal.
Until today, no one was charged and convicted though in relation to the NBN-ZTE scam. But Lozada was charged by the Department of Justice and the Ombudsman for his alleged violations of the anti-graft practices during his term as president of the Philippine forest Corp.
Yes, only in the Philippines. Here, if you are a whistleblower, better be ready to face the vultures in the government for they will get back to you. And most often than not, the hero ends up as the villain. They will search all dossiers against you and they will bury you alive. I just hope that Jun Lozada is fine as well as his family.
The story of Jun Lozada should not depress us but rather it should inspire our spirits to fight for what is right and to carry on the crusade for good governance. The Philippine government will not change overnight but each day that we call on the abuses of our government and we fight corruption even in the smallest of ways, we will definitely win in the end.