On Lozada: The perils of being a snitch

The way of the warrior says I have no desires; I make seizing the opportunity my desire.

The way of the warrior says I have no principles; I make adaptability my principle.

This is how I follow the way of the warrior: seize the opportunity and the power.

-Tokugawa Ieyasu, first Shogun

From time to time, partly to document my trying to understand Eastern attitudes towards governance in contrast to my own heavily-Western orientation, I like to quote extracts from the Analects of Confucius, most recently in entry The Mandate of Heaven. Recently I read this article on Tokugawa Neo-Confucianism and then this one on Intellectual currents in Tokugawa Japan. This is of more than antiquarian interest because Bushido was seriously examined by Filipinos prior to World War II (during and after which, of course, Bushido became tainted by its being used to justify Japanese atrocities) in the effort to instill a stronger sense of citizenship (in terms of both freedoms and responsibilities) in a country preparing for independence.

Bushido was held up by by various Filipino leaders before and during the war as something to emulate. You still find echoes of this in proposals by people like Jose Abueva to have a Bill of Rights and Obligations (which hews to the provisions of the 1943 Constitution of the Puppet Republic) instead of a Bill of Rights.

It’s a stretch to suggest that Japanese Neo-Confucianism or Confucianism itself is precisely the kind of thinking expressed by Romulo Neri, Jr. and his one-time acolyte and factotum, Jun Lozada.There are elements of these philosophies, however, in their public and private (then publicly-reported) view concerning governance and reforms.

But it brings me to this weekend’s entry. From my computer’s handy-dandy built-in dictionary:

snitch |sni ch | informal

verb

1 [ trans. ] steal.

2 [ intrans. ] inform on someone : she wouldn’t tell who snitched on me.

noun

an informer.

ORIGIN late 17th cent.: of unknown origin.

Jun Lozada, as I write this, is in Dagupan. The prelude to his visit was this: Lozada streamers torn down before his Pangasinan trip.

There’s scuttlebutt going around that the Palace has imposed a deadline for neutralizing Jun Lozada: the deadline is June, by which time students go back to school. The studentry, of course, prior to Lozada’s emerging as whistleblower, was safely thought of to be unengaged in the current political crisis.

Which leads to the question: Is Jun Lozada self-destructing, or is he being destroyed? if Jun Lozada is self-destructing, either he is not self-destructing quickly enough, or he isn’t really self-destructing at all -he’s just being worn down by the immense resources of the state.

In previous Masses held for him, it seems that the Palace has taken to distributing anti-Lozada Komiks; there is even talk that people are being organized to fill up the churches and then walk out on cue, both to disrupt the proceedings when Lozada begins his talk, and to promote the idea to the media that he is losing support.

Jun Lozada is at it again: writing, that is.

Read the latest products of Lozada’s pen for yourself.

He’s written two pieces, one primarily addressed to members of the clergy, the other, to the public-at-large.

In Telling the Truth.doc ver1.1[1].pdf , he goes into “The Diamond Principle,” in detail, but then again, this is something he has been talking about for some time.

In My reflections on my 2nd month of Calvary[1].pdf , he addresses the public, reiterating the circumstances surrounding his abduction and how nothing has really happened since then, except that the administration factotums originally in hot water have had time to sort out their stories.

Both pieces are surely a response to Lozada recently getting into hot water with some clerics and to media. And surely, a way for him to fight back.

First impressions count. But there are continuing impressions, too, and they add up. Jun Lozada makes some people teary-eyed and other people want to scream, still others want to vomit. It goes every which way: some public figure is sure to get someone foaming at the mouth, somewhere

.The Warrior Lawyer is upfront about his antipathy (based on personal interaction with Lozada) and makes more sense overall:

I never hid my dislike for Jun Lozada, based on his character and what I know of him as an operator when he was still with the DENR. This was a guy who’d arrogantly call for supposedly official meetings outside his office, in bars and restaurants, dine and drink his fill while behaving like a lout, then stick you with the bill. He has no sense of personal loyalty and has been politely described as a “man on the make” (and on the take, as he has admitted). As a whistle-blower, and civil-society “hero”, his whining self-righteousness is extremely irritating. He so obviously enjoys the limelight and his public statements during his recent “road tour” are characteristically pompous and overblown.

But I tried to separate the message from the messenger and gave him credit for speaking up, however reluctantly, on the ZTE broadband corruption scandal.

Now events have conspired to push him on a long slide to irrelevancy. First, the Supreme Court decision in Neri vs. Senate Committee has effectively stymied the Senate proceedings, his most effective platform. Worse, it has deprived the Senate of access to vital witnesses who would corroborate the allegations of Lozada and company, most notably Romulo Neri, as well as other Cabinet members and functionaries. Without a stage and most of the major players, this show can’t go on.

Then Cory Aquino, arguably the most popular opposition draw, and Lozada’s supposed patron and mentor on the path to rectitude, was stricken ill with cancer. No more Tita Cory to cuddle Jun and bring in the crowds.

Finally, there’s Lozada’s own big mouth. He could use some of the advise on self-examination and reflection he so blithely foists on others. His wiseass and bombastic manner has turned off a lot of people, even from among his initially steadfast supporters.

Similar views are in Jingoistic Lamentations.

In my column, The aesthetics of redemption, I stated my personal views about Lozada; in particular, that we should consider the effect of nearly being liquidated can have on someone: at the very least, it explains why someone already temperamentally inclined to be full of himself (as most fixers tend to be), would then become a zealot. Near-death experiences do that to people. So there is no objective reason why Lozada should be writing manifestos that may do him as much harm as good, but what he’s gone through certainly goes a long way to explain his compulsion to crank out manifestos.

While Clarissa Ocampo did state at the time that she feared for her life, she didn’t undergo an abduction and was given witness protection; allegations have been made that she received board appointment from the President but I can’t find any record of this (nor is any government largesse reported in Witnesses reap ‘rewards’ for role in Erap trial).

I also tried to point out that much of the skepticism that greets Lozada has to do with nothing more than questions of taste: in particular, he rubs upper class sensibilities raw and tends to irritate a subset of the middle class. It is the reason some Filipinos believe no funeral is complete without hysterics while others believe good taste demands that one should maintain a stiff upper lip in the face of adversity.

So it’s all a question of taste: the aesthetic element of politics. Just as I’ve argued that there are many who support the President because she upholds the primacy of outward appearances being more important than virtue itself, there are those who, finding Lozada to be grating on their nerves, will then lash out at him.

Typical of the visceral loathing some people who are purely observers (not having encountered him during his fixer days) have for Lozada, is the incoherent, but scathing, contempt of an Antonio Montalvan II for Jun Lozada. I had to ask someone what on earth Montalvan was trying to say: “he’s suggesting a stop to all the school hopping etc. what i like is that he’s implying (well, it’s explicit to me at least) that lozada’s still a crook by definition and must be charged – not really the figure to lead a ‘truth’ crusade of sorts.”

Fair enough.In janEe’s bLog, there’s email from someone present at the controversial Cebu forum Lozada attended, and who wrote,

The Senate investigation only confines itself to factual matters. As a political body, its primordial concern is to fulfill its constitutional mandate of conducting inquiry in aid of legislation. It does not delve into what is in the heart of a witness testifying before it. It cannot be concern about matters of the spirit; personal discernment and insights; and personal conversion and renewal.

These, I believe, is the higher pursuit of Jun Lozada’s journey, both in the physical and spiritual sense.

Despite his being not welcome here in Cebu, he braved the spurn knowing that the TRUTH will shield him against any forms off rebuke and rejections.

Jun was simply not rejected, he was harassed and slurred.

I, and many others, who attended the forum yesterday, had witnessed how Jun Lozada was humiliated & insulted by a man named Po, who claimed to be there in order to be “enlightened” on the issue.

See also, the open letter written by a priest in Cebu, Fr. Jesus Dumaual, as republished in Happy Faith:

You ask why? It is because you have answered (partly) a question they must have been asking all these years: Where have all our graduates gone, the product of Catholic Education, the minds and consciences that we have molded according to the values of the Gospels? Thousands, perhaps even a million of you have joined government service. What have become of you? Have you all become “team players”, swallowed by the system which is now considered the most corrupt in Asia? You are luckier, and I saw your great elation that late in the day, two priests were found (I was one of them) who were willing to say Mass for you. But the poor Sisters, so far, after all these years, have only found one: you. (You see, while we priests may have our Parishes, Sisters have only their Catholic Schools.) Of course, they want to hear your story, to know whatever happened to all the nurturing, the sacrifices they have made for all of you, including the scolding if you just forget to say your prayer, etc. But that can wait. All they want to show you is how grateful and appreciative they are you have returned. The rest will be history.

Which, combined with the letter from the lady in Cebu, gives a pretty good justification as to why Lozada should be making the rounds: to submit himself to the scrutiny of his countrymen.The best advice was given matter-of-factly by JC’s Anatomy. Answer the criticisms. Going back to his recent visit to Cebu, you can’t get fiercer than Fighting Tofu who expressed loathing for Lozada. I myself delved into the whole controversy in The interdiction of a witness, but much of it seemed to me a case of conservative shock on the part of those unused to questioning prelates, and more attuned to the old obediences. A marvelous demonstration of this is that the expression of disgust with Lozada currently making the rounds was a captive protest: watch “Gloria” (Dancing Inmates – Protest Dance). Ordering prison inmates to engage in an obviously far-from-spontaneous dance number… well, the irony is as rich as it gets.

Still: for every person still firmly convinced of his good intentions, like on to a new beginning who ran into him during a graduation ceremony in La Salle Greenhills; nut there are those, like the priest Per Agrum ad Sacrum, hostile to him:

But what then explains the anger? What explains all the zeal and passion and the fury? I would assume they want something else, on account of the fact that they have found common cause with interesting individuals who really have little interest, and thus, can boast of little love lost for the finer nuances of moral theological thinking ( no matter how much they quote and endlessly misquote the Lord’s words, “the truth will set you free.”). I assume they want more than just the moral truth they ought already to know. I assume they want heads to roll. What else explains the “non sequitur” slogans and name-calling directed against the devil woman and her cohorts?

I would also assume that it is not really so much moral truth they want, as “teachings” that would ride along with what they want. How else explain their vociferous rantings against the bishops, who they claim “are not in touch with reality,” or who “are playing deaf, dumb, and blind” to all the shenanigans being perpetrated by this administration? After the Bishops talked about the moral truth of a “culture of corruption” that is found in all levels of society, after the Bishops took to task the President and called for the dismantling of all obstacles to truth, these self-proclaimed “guardians of morality” now declare the Bishops as hopelessly blind, deaf, and dumb, for their taste? How about venting your ire against some media outfits who have already decided what is true for them? Didn’t the Bishops also call the mass media to task? Didn’t the Bishops also call the so-called oppositionist politicians to set aside their ill concealed ambitions and personal agenda? Weren’t we all cautioned against subverting this and many other issues to our own sinister agenda?

There is something seriously amiss in this highly engaging telenovela. Abetted and supported by the so-called “media moment,” a whistle blower who was part of the system of corruption just a few months ago, has suddenly been catapulted to near-divine status, called a “hero” for modesty’s sake (thank you!). Mobbed and adulated everywhere by the supposed guardians of truth and objectivity, the very people on whom millions of young people depend on for their education, the self-proclaimed “crusader for truth” now inflames the passions of the young, idealistic, and easily manipulable students, who are being doled out daily lessons on how to be a “responsible, “law-abiding,” and “democratic” citizen without really trying hard to respect rule of law. In a clear example of collusion pushed to the extreme, with no parallels in recent history, the guardians and teachers of moral truth, legislators, educators, mass media purveyors, and executives in and out of government, have suddenly decided to become accuser, judge, and executioner all rolled into one.

And there are concerned parents like Couch Potato Corner, who says Lozada is a menace and should be evicted by the school.

Lozada compared his own abduction to the abduction and murder of Dacer, and there’s a reason the comparison resonated with the public.

By all accounts, Dacer was an asshole; by comparison, in comparing himself to Dacer, Lozada was admitting he was an asshole, too; but no one has ever said Dacer deserved to be rubbed out.

Dacer knew something, and had to die. Lozada knew something, and had to die.

But Lozada lived to tell his tale.

And so, he has to be destroyed.

Because the longer he sticks around and remains a pest, the more time people have to let the lesson of the last few years finally sink in. She’s as bad, and even worse, than the previous guy who got kicked out.

Avatar
Manuel L. Quezon III.

233 thoughts on “On Lozada: The perils of being a snitch

  1. Flaws and all, Jun Lozada is a genuine Filipino hero. I hope he hangs in there as the coming period will require persistence.

  2. whatever his detractors say about him, I think Lozada has already done his job in exposing the ARroyos.

    And Lozada is not the problem, it’s this administration and it’s defenders who are.

  3. MLQ3

    Gloria and her spin doctors clearly understand the Filipino psyche..The Jun Lozada episode is over.. let’s move on the next chapter of our lives..the looming rice crisis.

    As in any Pinoy telenovela,Pinoys hate too many replays of the Jun Lozada episode.

    Why is Gloria able to commit a litany of scandls???

    Because we are a people with short memories.That’s what Gloria and her gang keep on exploiting.

    Yes, our country’s political system sucks. But our culture sucks as well. And one of the ways it sucks the most is in its failure to teach people reasoning, cause-and-effect… and history.

  4. Jun Lozada is analogous to a reluctant bride, not really a “willing” whistle blower, but by circumstances and development of event was thrust into the limelight..How he played his part as compared to Ocampo, who was never in Government Service and also was never alleged in any wrongdoing herself remains to be seen in the future…I tend to believe in his testimonies, otherwise the Palace would have not done an all-out effort to discredit the Man if they can disprove his testimonies with counter evidence and clean records of their own.

  5. I agree with Cat, Lozada is losing his luster. Napapagod na ang tao sa pakikinig sa kanya.

    Is it because of the notorious Filipinos’ short memory?

    Is it because Jun Lozada is not telling the truth?

    Whatever the answers to these two questions are, don’t matter much to many.

    Personally though, I still would like to know what really was Gloria’s role in the ZTE/NBN anomaly, the DA fertilizer scam, the swine scam, the Hello Garci and others.

  6. As I have said, Lozada will be “archived”

    hmmm… that sounds something lacson’s accused of doing to his enemies. lol.

    I agree with Cat, Lozada is losing his luster. Napapagod na ang tao sa pakikinig sa kanya.

    Is it because of the notorious Filipinos’ short memory?

    Is it because Jun Lozada is not telling the truth?

    after abducting lozada and stonewalling the investigations, you still willing to give this admin the benefit of the doubt?

  7. I think the Jun Lozada expose is NOT the tipping point.

    I feel it in my (weary) bones that Gloria’s revival of CHA CHA later this year will be the TIPPING POINT.

    She will do it in a hurry while lameduck Bush is still in power.

    The people will not tolerate another CHA-CHA.

  8. i think it was john nery who was one of the first from the media to complain that lozada was “getting a free pass” on his indiscretions and attack his credibility as a whistleblower.

    http://www.newsstand.blogs.com/newsstand/2008/03/column-how-jun.html

    Nery also used the term “man on the make” re lozada, just like Warrior Lawyer.

    i think nery was offended when lozada started criticizing the CBCP for carrying water for the Arroyos. Ingrate raw siya dahil hindi ba prino-protektahan naman siya ng mga madre?

    what lozada doesn’t realize is that the they will protect lozada from Arroyo, but not if it means the overthrow of this regime.

  9. CVJ:the swine scam was the QUEDANCOR scandal.
    Lawyer Harry Roque Jr noted that the Quedan Rural Credit and Guarantee Corp. (Quedancor) was attached to the Office of the President when a multibillion-peso swine scam took place in 2004.

  10. I think the Jun Lozada expose is NOT the tipping point.

    hello garci was the worst point for arroyo. that’s why we had CPR, Garci dissappearing, EO 464, barricades at the malacanang, PO 1017, media intimidation on the playing of those tapes.

    nene pimentel was right when he said in 2005 that pursuing impeachment was a trap, because it was a lost cause. it wont remove arroyo (just like impeachment never would have convicted and removed erap) unless you have a backup plan that may involve violence and military intervention.

    http://www.politicaljunkie.blogspot.com/2006/02/news-flash-military-coup-topples.html

  11. My sense of things is that an attempt for parliamentary will most likely fail, but the attempt won’t “tip” so GMA gets forced to leave.

    “cha cha” is intellectual of interest only to a few. These things do not become tipping points — unless the masses get agitated, the police over-react, and mayhem ensues.

    Rice… different story.

  12. why someone already temperamentally inclined to be full of himself (as most fixers tend to be), would then become a zealot.

    Lozada should join the Couples for Christ.

  13. what lozada doesn’t realize is that the they will protect lozada from Arroyo, but not if it means the overthrow of this regime.

    What i meant was…

    what lozada doesn’t realize is that while they (CBCP) will protect lozada from this administration’s goons, it does not mean in any way, shape or form that they will also support Lozada’s case vs. the Arroyos. Even/especially if lozada is telling the damaging truth.

    I feel it in my (weary) bones that Gloria’s revival of CHA CHA later this year will be the TIPPING POINT.

    she won’t revive it anymore. it was only used as a distraction to hello garci. it has already served it’s purpose.

  14. It really simple, Jun Lozada, is not delivering results! If lozada is a hero, he is now a forgotten hero.

  15. Equalizer, UPn, i have no idea on what the ‘tipping point’ will be but since tipping points are few and far between, i hope that if and when it comes, people will make the most out of it as an opportunity for genuine change.

  16. “My sense of things is that an attempt for parliamentary will most likely fail, but the attempt won’t “tip” so GMA gets forced to leave.”UP nS

    UP N Student:Elementary Dr Watson.Gloria and Ronnie Puno will NOT allow the Cha cha to fail!

    There crude attempts to get it down our throats will in effect trigger the people’s anger.

    You need to think the unthinkable.That’s why Ronnie P. is political chameleon par excellance!

  17. “she won’t revive it anymore. it was only used as a distraction to hello garci. it has already served it’s purpose.”John Marzan

    John :your “Putin “scenario in your blog is also a strong possibility (to rule by pulling the strings of her successor)

  18. Tokugawa had to naturally stress loyalty to rule over his new fiefdom since he had to bank on the betrayal of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s men to win in Sekigahara.

    Surely he wouldn’t want his tactics to be used against him.

  19. The Equalizer: Yes-way. In 2010, the GMA presidency will end, by the rules of the 1987 Constitution.

  20. Rice… different story. – UP n

    Sure will, the angriest will exploit the hungriest.

  21. “We don’t heed history, we will repeat it.”
    –conrado de quiros/pdi

  22. lozada is a classic example of a contrived “hero” of the desperate “oust-gloria” crowd clutching on the wind. it seems that any scoundrel who says anything that can remotely put the integrity of the president into question, whether in the senate or in the media, is lionized as God’s gift to humanity.

    lozada has “exposed” nothing that the public did not already know and which was “helpful” to the opposition’s cause. his testimony, for the most part, was that somebody said something and that he didn’t know of any “smoking gun”, of his own knowledge.

    i don’t know lozada from adam but warrior lawyer’s personal impressions about the guy confirm my own assessments. i see a con artist who has been presented with an opportunity for a 15-minute fame but stupidly thought it would last forever. he grabbed it with all the gusto he could muster, basking in the light of sitting beside the former president cory aquino in church, while surrounded by la salle nuns and priests and assorted political “has beens”, as mass is being said in his “honor” dubbed “mass for truth”.

    the big question is: why should the administration be automatically blamed for everything that tends to unmask lozada for what he is? isn’t it possible that there are decent individuals who are genuinely turned off and annoyed by the guy’s antics and his admirers’ gushing attempts to promote him to the undiscerning sectors of society?

    it looks like lozada’s 15-minute of glory is up. his forum of necessity, the church, has wised-up to his handlers’ opportunism. now he can be an insignificant footnote of history on discussions about how a nation shoots itself on the foot, and suffer self-inflicted injuries.

  23. I, too, have to admit.

    Lozada and the ZTE have been forgotten. Lozada has nothing more to offer.

    GMA survives! Very lucky bitch indeed.

  24. Mr. Lozada’s handlers didn’t get it right. Even if we say with a 32-bit memory, this may be all virtual.

    The Filipinos’ psyche includes short “real” memory, “baka parang DOS-era pa.” And even shorter attention span. If in this short span, you don’t achieve the tipping point, boiling point, break point ,or whatever point you may call it, then the agitation returns to equilibrum.

    With the relative under-development in this country, the people are not . Politically aware but not informed. Think about it. They say the internet is the great Equalizer, but where do most Filipinos spend their time online.

    Ordinary people are much more concerned with low politics, i.e., economic needs: the next meal, the tuition fee that must be paid, etc.

    Many cannot hear what Mr. Lozada is saying because they are listening to their grumbling stomachs.

  25. Why you guys keep saying Filipinos have SHORT TERM memory when in fact, they remember full well how it is back then in the Spanish era. They know they should be afraid of the authorities. They know they can do nothing. Ask the church.

  26. @BrianB

    The jueteng lords and drug dealers today will become the elite tomorrow.

    Think about it.

  27. The fact that the ZTE scandal is fading away is not Jun Lozada’s fault, rather it is the result of a system that is used and misused by those who have the ability to do so (call them what you like). Any lawyer will tell youo that witnesses are rarely saints — just like us they have their weaknesses and their faults. Capone was convicted for tax evasion on the testimony of his book keeper, who was complicit in hiding his wealth.

    No, the responsibility for the fading of Lozada’s testimony and the scandal is the with the system that we have. Mr. Lozada is material insofar only as to the things he knows, not who he is. The problem is that we have a system of accountability that is not interested in finding out.

  28. I see that it’s talk like Benign0 day in this thread. – cvj

    I maybe one of those you are referring to. No, I’m just debating with my alter ego.

    It has nothing to do with principles. Just a mind exercise.

  29. Face it Lozada’s usefulness in dethroning the Queen has passed. If there is something that can unseat Gloria,this is the rice crisis.If you believe that heaven has pulled out her mandate,this could be it.

    Jun Lozada has caught the star complex. If Lozada would like to save the nation,then he should do a Ninoy Aquino.

    It is a shudder to think that Ortigas Avenue in front of La Salle Greenhills could be renamed as the Jun Lozada Avenue, complete with probinsiyanong instik statue!

  30. hmmm… that sounds something lacson’s accused of doing to his enemies. lol.

    as a blogger, you know what i mean.

    after abducting lozada and stonewalling the investigations, you still willing to give this admin the benefit of the doubt?

    alleged…

    to me he is not a credible witness. even his tears are those of the croc.

    case closed.

    go and look for my prediction about lozada.

  31. Whatever and however one describes Jun Lozada, the fact that really stands out is that the government has gone overdrive to stop his campaign for truth, accountability and reform.

    Sure, he will and might vanish after some time but what is important is the fact that Jun has reinvograted the middle class. Surely, the middle class is not so dumb to have risen up in anger if his testimony could not be validated over and over again. However the detractors of Jun say about his testimony being hearsay, the fact is the administration senators have tried over and over again to discredit Jun but failed.

    If Jun is such a liar like Mawanay or Mahusay, why does this government treat him with such fear that he must disappear before June, as Manolo described it.

    No matter what your arguments against Jun are, they really are garbage because your greatest sympathizer, the Arroyo government believes in Jun’s testimony and is moving heaven and earth to silence this man and to prevent the middle class from galvanizing further. That alone should give you pause from your sycophantic essays or one-liners.

  32. Cat,

    I went through your predictions and I find them all conclusions of facts, baseless and rather vacuous.

    You know for a fact that Jun’s tears were crocodile tears? How so? It takes one to know one?

    You pride yourself with predictions but there really is nothing substantive with your comments. Another cat, Kitty Go, is a better feline than you are. And her essays and sound bytes are a lot better and more incisive.

    Since you claim that Jun is not a credible witness, I will assume you watched him in all the Senate hearings. Pray tell, which part was he not credible?

    No conclusions of facts please!

  33. Bencard,

    I am interested to know if you observed Jun Lozada in all his hearings before the Senate. Since you claim to be a lawyer and I am not one, I would like to be informed with your perceptions of Mr. Lozada.

    Please tell us what part of his testimony is untrue.

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