Saving his neck doesn’t make Lozada a hero

To those who are still willing to view current developments in the Philippines with an open mind, the clearest signal to be derived from the Rodolfo Lozada episode of the ZTE-NBN scandal is that corruption is okay so long as you do not get caught.

The beauty of this principle is that it works both ways. It was okay for Benjamin Abalos and Mike Arroyo until things began to unravel. And it certainly way okay with Jun Lozada until he got caught in the middle and began singing.

But the principle sends the wrong signal to everyone. Instead of striking fear in the hearts of people that crime does not pay, it actually encourages the commission of crime for as long as nobody gets caught.

Worse, some people with vested interests are using and manipulating the issue for their own purposes, crucifying one because it is convenient and profitable to do so, and edifying and extolling another for the same reasons when both actually do not differ from one another.

A growing number of people seem to forget that before everything started to break wide open, Jun Lozada was right there in the thick of it, at least for a while. By his own admission, he even made several suggestions that themselves were part of the whole corruption.

Jun Lozada is not a hero, even if some people would like to think he is. Lozada is a co-conspirator who got caught and is now trying to save his neck. If that is the measure of the new Filipino, then we have an abundant supply of similar heroes in our prisons.

Jun Lozada actually had his chance to become a real hero when he started learning the inside story about the national broadband project. But he never breathed a word about it. By keeping things to himself, he became a co-conspirator to the whole deal.

In fact he became a player himself when he suggested a way to gloss over the kickbacks. His problem was that those involved were simply too greedy and would not want to pare down the expected take, so his participation did not see fruition. But he was in on it.

The trouble began when some people saw in Jun Lozada an opportunity to push their own political agenda. They saw that Lozada was in a position to discredit the enemy and at the same time promote their own images as beacons of light. It was like hitting two birds with one stone.

So Lozada was summoned to testify before the Senate. In his own words, Lozada said he never wanted to be dragged into the unfolding melodrama. What this means is that, had he not been summoned, Lozada would probably have taken what he knew to his grave.

And that is hardly the kind of stuff of which heroes are made. It is, in fact the hallmark of the greatest coward on earth, who would rat on his friends (they were all friends, right?) just so he can save his neck.

Of course, there is no question that most of what Lozada has revealed is true. Truth is not the question here. Lozada is just a circumstantial personage. Had it been somebody else who mouthed the same tales, the same would still be believable and good enough to be taken as true.

What is objectionable is that some people are making it seem all right to make heroes out of heels for as long as the political objective is achieved. In such a case, that objective is tainted and will not right the mistakes being conveniently espoused as righteous causes.

We need real heroes who do not hesitate to stand for truth and right the moment they become evident, not when one is about to get caught and crucified. Unfortunately, Lozada belongs not to the former but the latter. Unfortunately still, most of us don’t know the difference.