Two weeks ago, I interviewed Jun Lozada at the La Salle Greenhills, his and his family’s home for over a month now since he survived the kidnap try by Gloria Arroyo’s minions at the airport.
I’m sharing with you excerpts of that interview. They make good reflections this Lenten season:
Q: You downplay people’s
“hero worship” of you. Are you scared?
A:Of course, I’m scared. It’s a huge responsibility. It’s a cross to
bear…. Ayaw kong maging daan or cause for other people to be sinful.
Q: How do you deal with the hero worship?
A:I will never allow it get to my head. Yung iba, nakikita ka sa camera, sa TV masaya na. I always remind myself, the people who was shouting “Hallelujah” when Jesus entered Jerusalem were the same people who were also. I just wanted to save my soul.
Q: When you go on campus tour, you are welcomed like a hero,while the opposite happens to your good friend, Romy Neri, like when he went to Davao, he was booed..
A: He is very much capable of handling that. Emotions are so fleeting. It can change.
Q: Sen. Ping Lacson asked how to describe Gloria Arroyo and he said, “ hopeless.” When asked to describe Neri he said, “may hope”.
(Note. Lozada nooded in agreement.)
Q: Where is the hope coming from?
A: I know him well enough.
Q: In the case of Deputy Executive Secretary Manny Gaite, was it painful for you seeing him being being raked over the coals?
A: Yes. He seems to be a good man. It pains me to see good people suspend their moral faculties just to cover up the lies of their higher authority. They are no different from the war criminals na kapag ini-imbistigahan mo,…. in moral psychology, it’s called the Lucifer effect.
In moral psychology , it’s already proven that men and women will generally suspend their moral faculties when confronted by higher authority at close proximity. I think that is what is happening to other people. I’m very careful not to be in close proximity to the people there. Napapasin mo rin si Neri, hindi rin nagsasama sa mga visit-visit.
Q: How has it been the past 30 days?
A: It’s like a lifetime. Very difficult, lahat na fears mo nandiyan. The difficulty is if you decide to carry the torch of truth, or the light of truth, it will shine upon you first.
The difficulty is masagasaan mo malalaking tao, mga kaibigan mo, madamay sa iyo. Pamilya mo. You put your family in harm’ way. Wala ng makikipagnegosyo sa yo, your future becomes uncertain.
