Published March 13, 2017, 10:00 PM by Charissa M.
Luci
Lawmakers grilled yesterday Energy
Regulatory Commission Chair Jose Vicente Salazar over the supposed approval of
procurement contracts without proper bidding and procedure.
Appearing before the joint hearing
of the House Committees on Energy and Good Government and Public Accountability
on the death of late ERC Director Francisco Villa Jr., veteran journalist
Rosario “Charie” Villa told the panel that it was Salazar who was “pushing” his
older brother to sign illegal documents.
“The day before he took his life, he
told me that ‘Chairman Salazar is pushing me to sign illegal documents.’ I said
to him, then quit your job. Marami akong kakilala. Akin na bio-data mo,
mag-resign ka na (I know many employers. Give me your bio-data, and you
resign),” she said.
She confirmed that her brother’s
suicide notes are “authentic and real.”
“I decided to come here dahil gusto
kong samahan ang mga kasamahan ni Jun. Pinagtatawanan natin ang pest control,
AVP, dahil maliit na halaga, pero sa isang kawani, malaki iyon. Magkano lang ba
ang sinusweldo ng kapatid ko? Sa kanya, mahalaga na ina-appoint siya na Bids
and Awards Committee chairman (I decided to come here for the sake of Jun’s
colleagues. We are making fun of pest control, AVP because it only involves
small amount, but for a public servant, it matters. How much salary he was
getting from doing his work? To him, it is important for him to be appointed as
Bids and Awards Committee chairman),” Villa said she broke into tears.
On Nov. 9, 2016, the older Villar
shot himself inside his house in Parañaque City.
Ms. Villa even told the panel that
it was Salazar and his cousin, Esteban Lorenzo Jose Riva, head executive
assistant, who pushed his brother to sign alleged “illegal” and “rigged”
documents. She even cleared former ERC Bids and Awards Committee member Sharon
Montaner and Cherrylyn Gonzales, secretariat head of the ERC’s Bids and Awards
Committee, of any wrongdoing in connection with the reported dubious handling
of contracts.
“I feel for the government employees
na naiipit. Kung may mali sa law, sa procurement, paki tama (I feel for the
government employees who were caught in the middle. If there is a loophole in
the law, especially in procurement, please have it corrected),” she said.
Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny
Pimentel, chairman of the House Committee on Good Government and Public
Accountability, said Salazar was “clearly lying” when he told the joint panel
that he has no knowledge of the ERC’s boardroom construction.
“You are clearly lying. Based on the
affidavit of the BAC members, you ordered the construction of the boardroom,”
he said. “How can you not know of construction when the boardroom is beside
your office?” he asked.
“I think being the head, there is no
other head who instructed the construction of the board room other than
Chairman Salazar,” Pimentel said.
In response, Salazar said, “I knew
about the ongoing renovation, but was unaware of procurement process.”
1-CARE partylist Rep. Carlos Roman
Uybarreta, vice chairman of the House Committee on Energy, chided some ERC
officials for using the late Director Villa for their “lapses” after Riva told
the panel that it was the late ERC official who gave him the green light to
start the construction of the board room.
“I pity Atty. Villa, he’s not here
to defend himself. Stop using your colleagues for the lapses you have
committed. Reading the affidavit of the two earlier witnesses, they speak
highly of Director Villa and other commissioners. I think something is
definitely wrong here,” Uybaretta said.
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