He literally has a “powerful” ally.
“The Batanes Electric Cooperative (Batanelco) denies the allegation of alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles that the company was used by Budget Secretary Florencio Abad to funnel millions from his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) back when he was still a congressman,” reports Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Abad had served as the congressman of the lone district of Batanes from June 1995 to June 2004.
In her affidavit, Napoles had claimed that she had met Abad in 2000. Back then, she said he had shown her a special allotment release order for a PHP10 million project with the Batanelco as the implementing arm.
The report noted: “Batanelco, in a joint statement issued by its former president Wilfrido Cabitac, incumbent president Quirino Gabotero, and general manager Victoria Mata, said Napoles lied when she implicated the power distributor and Abad, a former Batanes congressman.”
The Batanelco statement pointed out, “Batanelco has never been an implementing arm of Secretary Abad’s PDAF in all his projects except for the rural electrification projects. Our record shows that our cooperative has never been involved in the PDAF scam masterminded by Napoles. The National Electrification Administration can prove that we are one of the best-run electric cooperatives in the country.”
Screengrab from a news video
