IN FOCUS

ZTE-NBN whistleblower Rodolfo ‘Jun’ Lozada confers with Atty. Nery Colmenares of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers.

Archbishop Cruz in his homily said “The country reels in poverty because there are those who lie, those who cheat, and those who rob.” He called on everyone that, “If we seek the truth then we shall find it.”

Earlier in a press conference with Jun Lozada at the Lay Formation Center over at the Lingayen-Dagupan Archdiocese, Archbishop Cruz explained that while all of the members of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines were guided by their unity to seek truth, much of them differ in interpreting it.

Asked of the on-going whispers that there also is a “bagman” (one that is tasked to collect bribe money allegedly being paid to the ranks), the Archbishop boldly answered yes, but refused to name names.

Anti-JLo campaign

Sister Cecil Ruiz of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines and human rights group Karapatan Central Luzon said “more than 5,000 truth seeking Filipinos joined us today. More would have joined us had it not for the effort of those who want to keep the Filipino people blindfolded and cowered.”

Four days ago all the streamers which supporting organizations hanged in different places in the city to welcome the arrival of Jun Lozada disappeared, and some streamers personally attacking him materialized.

“Even a day before we hit the Dagupan City for our caravan, leaflets describing Lozada as as evil, a bribe taker himself and has political ambitions for 2010 already littered the city streets and nearby towns,” Sister Ruiz added.

The bomb

Archbishop Cruz, a critic of the Arroyo administration suspects political allies of President Arroyo in the city were behind the efforts to malign Lozada, but said he finds it as “amusing”.

He added that the same Arroyo allies, who he did not name, also asked the city government not to allow the holding of the mass and forum.

Reverend Henry Roque, District Supervisor of the United Methodist Church and convenor of the Church and Lawyers Peacemakers Conference (CLPC) denounced the clear effort these same Arroyo allies to derail the day’s activity as he read the statement of support from CLPC and their religious community.

A bomb threat to the astrodome was allegedly phoned in to a nearby substation of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

Panic of the crowd was averted as the ensuing investigation of a mysterious package in three plastic bags suspected to have contained the “bomb” yielded a bunch styrofoam containers full of food leftovers disposed off to a locked side stairs. xxx