Rodolfo "Jun" Lozada Jr. surfaced early Thursday morning and substantiated allegations regarding the roles of First Gentleman Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo and former elections chief Benjamin Abalos Sr. in the scrapped national broadband network (NBN) project of the government.
Past 2 a.m., Lozada appeared with nuns and members of the La Salle Brothers at the La Salle Greenhills high school campus in Mandaluyong City.
Lozada, who has been missing since Tuesday afternoon, said Abalos wanted the project to push through with loans.
When he refused to agree to Abalos's wishes, Lozada said that the former elections chairman said that they should just forget about the project altogether.
Lozada said that at the time the NBN deal was being planned, the price tag was $262 million and Abalos wanted $130 million as kickback. The project eventually ballooned to $329 million.
"I thought at that point it was a win-win situation for everyone involved."
He said that when Abalos disagreed with his proposal, he left the former poll chief and de Venecia to discuss the project among themselves because he did not want to get involved. He said he was involved in the negotiations only as a consultant to former socioeconomic planning secretary Romulo Neri.
"The trouble started when Chairman Abalos wanted to protect his $130 million commission on the project," said Lozada.
Article taken from the ABS-CBN News website.
Images and Videos courtesy and copyright of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation.
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