NBI to provide security to Jun Lozada’s family

JUSTICE Secretary Leila de Lima ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to help secure Rodolfo "Jun" Lozada and his family in light of reports that poser agents wanted to arrest him on graft charges pending at the Sandiganbayan.

De Lima said Friday that she received a text message on Thursday night from the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines (AMRSP) reporting the incident in Lozada's house in Pasig City.

"The house help was allegedly harassed by those pretending to implement the warrant of arrest," she told reporters.

Lozada, currently under the custody of the nuns who also helped him in 2008 when he uncovered the anomalous NBN-ZTE broadband deal, also relayed the incident in a radio interview on Thursday morning.

De Lima denied that she directed the NBI to arrest Lozada.

"There is no such order from me, not from (NBI Director Nonnatus Rojas) and so, clearly, those men were impostors. I wanted it investigated because this is not the first time. I think last Saturday, and then followed by another incident Monday. Then the latest was afternoon of yesterday (Thursday)," she said.

The Sandiganbayan ordered Lozada's arrest in connection with his decision to lease a piece of land to his brother, Jose Orlando, when he was president of the Philippine Forest Corp. (PhilForest), an agency under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)