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The Philippine Government denied abducting a key witness in a Senate inquiry into alleged kickbacks in a telecoms deal with a Chinese firm in which the husband of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been named.
Rodolfo Lozada, the head of state-run Philippine Forest Corp, was ordered to appear before the Senate to testify on the deal with ZTE Corp, but first left for Hong Kong and then was picked up by police at the airport when he returned. The Government said it was a security measure.
Newspapers accused the Government of trying to block his testimony. Lozada backed claims implicating the former election commission chief, Benjamin Abalos, in a multi-million dollar kickbacks scandal over the deal with ZTE to supply a broadband network to link government agencies. The name of Mike Arroyo, the president's husband, has also cropped up in the inquiry.
- REUTERS
