OFFBEAT MAIL

Former Commission on Election chairman Benjamin Abalos scolded mediamen today at the Wack-Wack Golf and Country Club in Mandaluyong City, after they have sought his reaction to the accusations made by another key witness who implicated his name on the anomalous multi-million dollar ZTE broadband deal between the Philippines and China. Abalos appeared to have been irritated after his name was again implicated by a certain Rodolfo Lozada, president of the Philippine Forestry Development Council and who served as its technical adviser on the ZTE broadband project of the government. Lozadas' allegations on the mysterious broadband contract has broken the long silence of the former Comelec official who was passing away his time playing golf in Mandaluyong City, when mediamen swarmed to ask him a series of questions surrounding the controversy. It wasn't exactly clear how and in what manner Abalos scolded the mediamen following him to the golf course. But his facial expressions on

Another key witness in the anomalous ZTE broadband deal between the Philippines and China, surfaced early dawn today at a catholic school in San Juan, Green Hills, Metro Manila, after he was allegedly abducted more than 20 hours ago by unknown individuals as he disembarked from a Cathay Pacific Airways at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City, Philippines. Rodolfo Lozado, a technical adviser to the multi-million dollar ZTE boradband project and president of the Philippine Forest Development Council, an attached agency of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), told media during a press conference held inside the La Salle Catholic School in Greenhills, San Juan, Metro Manila that he was fetched by plainclothes men who introduced themselves as coming from the police security protection unit of the Philippine National Police. Reports said Lozada was whisked away without passing through the customs and immigration personnel who normally inspect each arriv