By Delon Porcalla (The
Philippine Star) | Updated March 14, 2017 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - A ranking
official of the House of Representatives yesterday expressed doubt over the
alibi of Energy Regulatory Commission chairman Jose Vicente Salazar in
connection with corruption allegations bared by an ERC official who committed
suicide in November 2016.
“You are clearly lying because
based on the affidavit of the BAC (bids and awards committee) members, ikaw
iyung nagpagawa ng boardroom (you were the one who had the boardroom
renovated),” Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel, chairman of the House good
governance committee, told Salazar.
The PDP-Laban stalwart and ally of
President Duterte noted that the boardroom, located beside Salazar’s office,
was the subject of a controversial renovation project prior to BAC chairman
Francisco Jose Villa Jr.’s suicide.
During yesterday’s hearing, Salazar
admitted knowing about the renovation project.
“I know that the boardroom was
completed. But with respect to the process, as this was undertaken, I had no
knowledge,” the ERC chief told the Pimentel panel which was investigating the
reasons surrounding Villa’s suicide.
Villa is the younger brother of ABS-CBN
executive Rosario Sofia “Charie” Villa.
The younger Villa left a suicide
note that purportedly exposed corruption within the ERC.
Cherry Lynn Gonzales, former ERC
bids and awards committee secretariat head, said during yesterday’s hearing
that the ERC boardroom renovation was completed in the first quarter of 2016.
But she also revealed that the
invitation to bid for the renovation contract was posted in October 2016, long
after the project was finished.
Pimentel said it would be
“impossible” for Salazar not to know about the project.
Salazar said he was only informed
about the BAC process during the last hearing. He said the request did not
come from his office but from the Office of the General Counsel.
Meanwhile, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez
has filed a bill in the House that seeks to abolish the ERC following the
corruption allegations.
“The suspicions raised against the
integrity of the ERC, which is primarily entrusted with regulating the
country’s electric industry and promoting competition in the market, cannot be
ignored,” he stated in his House Bill 5020.
Alvarez proposed the creation of the
Board of Energy, which shall be an attached agency of the Department of Energy.
“This will ensure that the newly
created board shall be explicitly within the regulatory arm of the government
and specifically, within the direct control and supervision of the President,”
the House leader said.
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