Alfred Jacob Miller (1810-1874). Fort Laramie. Oil on canvas 1851. GM Gilcrease permanent collection. Right-clicked from www.gilcrease.org searched thru www.artcyclopedia.com
There is evidence of his (Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada’s) personal knowledge that the witness refuses to detail, a first-hand account, and not just overheard phone conversations or phone conversations told him: The dinner-meeting sometime November-December 2006 at the Makati Shangrila where FG sat throughout, with then Comelec chair Benjamin Abalos, Joey de Venecia, Jun Lozada, and an assistant of FG, all arranged by Ben Abalos to show FG that the parties have reconciled their differences. This evidence is first-hand and can be corroborated,; and, if true, shows FG’s hand in the contract-negotiations, if true, in peddling influence, and if true, in helping broker the deal.
Because it’s the witness’s life that’s on the line, and because his life continues to hang in the balance until and after his direct and cross-examination are completely finished in a court of law or in an impeachment trial, and because no guarantees of safety could be completely given to him as long as those who ordered him seized at the airport are still running around, only the witness has the right to decide how much of his life he would stake by how much he would disclose.
He can either save the important details for an impeachment trial which may or may not come or wait until after 2010 and hope for a new government. Today, nobody knows for sure how the Senate investigation would go, although you can be sure that the politicians who want to be President in 2010 are milking the most publicity they could from his life; how many of them would be willing to set aside their ambition and investment for an impeached and convicted President resulting in the Vice President succeeding for the remainder of the term?
Not having his own army, not being a warlord, not having a trove and a bailiwick, he survived the agents of the state solely on his wits and the political pressure created by the storm of the scandal (his family’s embrace and quick thinking, the nuns’ strength of faith, the relentlessness of the media, and the vigilance and indignance of concerned organizations).
His instincts should probably be trusted should he decide to save the details in an undisclosed affidavit or for an uncertain impeachment trial or a more uncertain new and upright government.
He is holding back. And he will hold back. It is his only insurance against the dogs of the state, pit bulls. If the Senate investigation does not result in any meaningful change, those dogs will come yapping at his doorstep and drag him out like a piece of meat.
Contract-negotiation is an entire process that involves exchanging of drafts and notes, groundwork (one-on-one), (money changing hands in this case), revising terms. He had more of it, evidence of personal knowledge, but he is waiting for a more certain time.
