The Office of the Solicitor General has asked Tuesday the Court of Appeals (CA) to dismiss the petition for a court protection order for Senate whistleblower Rodolfo Noel "Jun" Lozada.

The CA has just finished its second hearing on Tuesday into the writ of amparo petition of Arturo Lozada which sought from the Supreme Court a protection order for his brother.

The SC sent the petition to the CA for hearings.

During the second hearing Arturo continued his testimony on alleged threats made to his brother’s liberty and security upon his arrival from Hong Kong.

"No personal knowledge of threats"

Arturo’s testimony however hit a snag, when after grilling by CA justices, he admitted he had no personal knowledge on these threats and most of what he knew was based on what his brother "Jun" Lozada said during hearings conducted by the Senate.

Assistant Solicitor General Amparo Tang said this should be enough reason for the petition to be dismissed as both witnesses, Arturo and his sister Carmen who testified in an earlier hearing, have claimed no personal knowledge on threats made against "Jun" Lozada nor have they seen any of the text messages coming from the respondents in this petition.

"Text message enough"

Lawyers for "Jun" Lozada, however were not discouraged as they said it was all part of a bigger picture of what "Jun" went through after his arrival.

Lawyer Rex Fernandez said that while Jun's brother did not see him at the airport during his arrival, it is enough that he received a text message hours later regarding the persons that allegedly grabbed the Senate’s whistleblower at the airport.

"Jun" Lozada is expected to appear in the next hearing set on April 11 and testify on alleged threats made against his life and liberty.

"Jun" Lozada is the latest star whistleblower in the Senate’s probe into the allegations of bribery and overpricing in the scrapped national broadband network deal between the government and China’s ZTE Corp.

When he arrived from Hong Kong early February, Lozada said he was abducted to prevent him from testifying in the Senate probe. Even though he is still under the protective custody of the Senate and is being assisted religious organizations, he said there are continuing threats to his life. With a report from Marieton Pacheco