Fantastic, incredible

MANILA, Philippines – Resigned Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos will file a P200-million libel suit against witness Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. for accusing him of brokering the aborted national broadband network deal with ZTE Corp.

Speaking to reporters in Mandaluyong yesterday, Abalos denied Lozada’s allegations that he was at the center of the scandal now engulfing the government.

“Don’t you find this fantastic, incredible?” he asked.

“It is not in the number of witnesses presented, but in the credibility of even one witness that makes a statement real. It (witness statement) should be credible by itself.”

Salvador Panelo, a lawyer for Abalos, said they will take legal action against Lozada as soon as they get the transcripts of his press conference at La Salle, Greenhills and his testimonies in the Senate.

“We will sue him for libel based on his testimony imputing a crime against Mr. Abalos,” he said.

“Mr. Abalos is not the approving authority in the deal, so there is no logic in Abalos trying to bribe Joey (de Venecia III).”

Panelo said Lozada had conspired with Romeo Neri, former National Economic and Development Authority director general, to malign Abalos.

“Whether there is truth or none in the testimony of Lozada, but as

long as there is malice in maligning his (Abalos) character then libel charges should be filed,” he said.

Abalos will also sue Lozada for perjury because he had “lied under oath (in the Senate),” Panelo said.

Abalos was accompanied by his whole family in the press conference at Max restaurant along EDSA Central shopping mall, except for his son Mandaluyong Mayor Benhur Abalos.

Testifying at the Senate on Friday, Lozada accused Abalos and First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo of getting kickbacks from the $329-million contract with Chinese firm ZTE Corp.

“You have to protect our $130 million  (in kickbacks),” he quoted Abalos as telling him.

Mrs. Arroyo has discontinued the contract amid allegations of bribery and corruption involving senior government officials and her husband.

Lozada, an electronics engineer brought in to assess the deal, said he was told by Neri to reduce the kickbacks to Mrs. Arroyo’s allies and to “moderate their greed.”

In his Senate testimony, Lozada accused Abalos of threatening to kill him during a telephone conversation.

Abalos, a close friend of the President’s husband, has been forced to resign as Comelec chairman over the scandal.