EXECUTIVE Secretary Eduardo Ermita on Wednesday distanced the executive branch from a Manila court’s decision reversing the dismissal of perjury charges against ZTE witness Rodolfo Lozada Jr. and issue a warrant for his arrest.

Ermita said that just because Lozada became a "celebrity" in some sense, it does not make him above or exempt from the law.

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"We have to follow our judicial processes; we go by the rule of law. Nobody should be excluded just because they've become celebrities for whatever reasons, but there's not much I can say except to say that definitely it's not the doing of Malacañang that he's facing these charges," he said.

Ermita said since the day Lozada came out in the public revealing what he supposedly know about alleged irregularities in government, particularly the cancelled national broadband network project with China's ZTE Corp., he knew that the former Philippine Forest Corp. head is exposing himself to possible legal charges.

The ZTE witness, Ermita said, had even admitted to some violations that he supposedly committed while heading the Hilo Rest Corp. which he should answer for. He, however, did not elaborate what these violations are.

Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 11 Judge Cicero Jurado Jr. overturned the November 14, 2008 order of the Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 26 that dismissed the perjury case filed against Lozada by former presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor.

Jurado, in his decision, said there was probable cause for the issuance of a warrant of arrest against Lozada.

The perjury charges stemmed from Lozada's alleged statements that Defensor supposedly told him to deny that he was kidnapped by government officials when he returned to the Philippines from Hong Kong to testify on the ZTE deal, and to say that he did not know anything about the broadband deal. (JMR/Sunnex)