Dr. Benjamin Lozare’s P300,000 contract with then Information Minister Gregorio’s Cendana (Direct Line, Apr. 16) was not exactly a deep, dark secret. Dr. Lozare did not hide this fact, even if it formed the basis for the rumor that he was Mr. Cendana’s deep-penetration agent in the NAMFREL.

But even if we consider Dr. Lozare’s relationship with Mr. Cendana to have been a strictly professional one, this P300,000 contract does raise the issue of prefessional ethics.

Whatever information about the Manila electorate was learned via the Cendana contract was information that belonged to the Office of the Media Affairs which had paid for the study. Dr. Lozare, therefore, had no right to use this information at all, least of all for NAMFREL’s purposes.

Can we expect Dr. Lozare to be sensitive to possible conflicts-of-interest in his new, powerful position?

Pat Bonson