NBN-ZTE deal whistleblower Jun Lozada reflects on imprisonment, newfound faith
Jun Lozada turned emotional as he looked back at how he became the star witness who exposed alleged corruption in the canceled multimillion-dollar NBN-ZTE deal during the Arroyo administration and ended up in prison with his brother in 2022.
The Bureau of Corrections on July 9 confirmed to the Philippine STAR that Lozada and his brother were freed from the New Bilibid Prison on May 9 after serving the minimum sentence and being eligible for parole.
In an interview with ANC's Dateline Philippines, host Karmina Constantino asked Lozada how it makes sense for him that he ended up behind bars despite having risked everything to fight for transparency and accountability.
"Yeah, that's, you know," Lozada said, as he got lost for words and fought back tears. "I went through that. I went to a series of questioning, of actually getting angry with God."
He then ended up with a realization: “If these things are happening, [it's] because God allowed it.”
For Lozada, his time behind bars became a turning point in deepening his faith. He recalled the challenges faced by Jesus Christ and other figures in the Bible.
“Parang sabi sa akin, ‘Ikaw, iyan pa lang ang pinagdadaanan mo, nagrereklamo ka na.’ I felt so ashamed when I was complaining," he said.
Lozada admitted to asking “hundreds of whys” during his imprisonment, but his initial anger and confusion turned into introspection.
“This is really not the country that the good Lord has in store for us,” he said. “Hindi talaga ito.”
Lozada also alluded to evil as the root cause of the country's ongoing struggles, though he did not specify any sociopolitical issue.
“There are people who have been deceived by the other side, the dark side," he said. "Money, power, all of this material comfort. It’s intoxicating. I’ve been there. I’ve been in that space.”
Asked if he feels safe upon his release since those whom he "came face to face with... still have influence," Lozada said, "Wala na siguro. I've surrendered na."
“When something happens and God allows, He has a purpose for it. Iyon na lang siguro tayo ngayon," he added.
As the interview drew to a close, Constantino reminded Lozada of his statement in 2016, when he said it's difficult to love the country. She asked him, “Was it all worth it?”
After a brief pause, he said, "I guess it is."
“We only have one life. Meaning, what could be a better way to spend our time here on Earth than to love?” he said.
Looking back, Lozada called his years in prison a “refining period of my life,” as he and other inmates learned to embrace their faith amid hardship.
NBN-ZTE deal
Lozada implicated several high-ranking officials in the deal between the Philippine government (for a proposed National Broadband Network) and the Chinese firm ZTE Corporation in April 2007.
The deal involved the creation of a network that would improve government communications capabilities.
In September of that year, then-president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo suspended the deal and, in October, canceled the project altogether, according to a timeline provided by GMA News in 2007.
In his July 9, 2025, column for The Philippine STAR, Jarius Bondoc noted that Lozada was one of the three whistleblowers for his 2007-2008 exposé on the "NBN-ZTE scam."
Bondoc said businessman Joey de Venecia first divulged how then-first gentleman Mike Arroyo told him to “back off” the project.
Engr. Dante Madriaga then detailed the $10-million “appearance fee” for President Arroyo to personally sign the deal in Boao in Hainan, China, on April 20, 2007, according to Bondoc.
Economic Sec. Romy Neri testified at the Senate that then-Commission on Elections Chairman Ben Abalos insinuated a P20-million bribe to endorse it.
Providing "gorier details," Bondoc said Lozada verified NBN to cost only $72 million to meld the country’s landline, cellular and internet gateways, and systems.
Bondoc noted that Lozada, "[u]nder instructions from Neri to 'moderate their greed,'" questioned ZTE’s asking price of $130 million (P7 billion).
Lozada then discovered the “greedy group” that added a “tong-pats” (patong, kickback) of $200 million (P10 billion), according to Bondoc.
The fiasco led to a Senate investigation and recommendation of criminal charges, but Sandiganbayan dismissed them all, except for the one against Lozada.
Bondoc also recalled Malacañang, "trying to hide the President’s signature, even claimed that I stole all copies of the contract upon its signing at Boao airport, where I’ve never been."
"Henchmen threatened to release a prisoner for one night to kill De Venecia and me," he added.
Lozada brothers' graft case
At the height of the political scandal, the Ombudsman accused Lozada of partiality and giving unwarranted benefits when he awarded over 6.599 hectares of public land to his brother under the Lupang Hinirang Program of the Philippine Forest Corporation, according to a report from GMA News.
The Sandiganbayan Fourth Division convicted the Lozada brothers of one count of graft in August 2016, ruling that Jun unlawfully granted a six-hectare leasehold right to Orlando during his tenure as the head of the Philippine Forest Corporation from 2007 and 2008.
They were sentenced to a six- to 10-year imprisonment.
The Lozada brothers appealed the verdict before the Supreme Court, but were denied. In its ruling dated July 28, 2021, and only publicized on March 23, 2022, the high court affirmed Sandiganbayan’s verdict that elements of graft were present when both men “conspired with each other so that the lease of idle public land would be awarded to Orlando.”
They voluntarily surrendered to the National Bureau of Investigation afterward, authorities confirmed on June 2, 2022, and were transferred to the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa on June 10 of that year. They were imprisoned for a total of 2 years, 11 months, and 7 days.
According to Bondoc, Lozada first spent a year at the Reception and Diagnostic Center, where prison gang lords made him “bosyo” or “mayor” of a “butas” or “brigada” of 200 inmates.
He was moved to the medium security compound for seven months and taught illiterate cellmates to read and write. Finally, in the minimum security area for a year, he preached teachings from the Bible and taught about Jose Rizal.
