Pinoy VOTE

Resigned elections chief Benjamin Abalos spurned yesterday calls to turn state witness and “tell all” the details surrounding the controversial national broadband network (NBN) contract.

{xtypo_quote}“How can I become a state witness when I know nothing? It is just their presumption that I have knowledge about that and to ask me to turn state witness is stupid,” he said.{/xtypo_quote}

Abalos maintained he cannot implicate the key players in the NBN deal without any hard evidence.

He rejected calls by lawmakers and critics to turn state witness and name all the key figures that facilitated the government’s NBN contract with China’s ZTE Corp

Abalos said the calls for him to turn state witness are based on hearsay and speculation.

Abalos claimed critics are using him for their publicity stunt by hurling accusations based solely on the statements of businessman Jose de Venecia III, the son of Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., whose firm Amsterdam Holdings Inc. (AHI) lost to ZTE for the NBN contract.

Abalos described the younger De Venecia as a “drug addict.”

“They are accusing me based on the statements of a drug addict. They would rather believe the statements of a drug addict than that of the Comelec chairman? That’s wrong. We are delving on speculations here, so that’s why our country has not moved forward,” he said.

Abalos also said he is not keen on appearing anew before the Senate inquiry into the NBN controversy.

He said the same questions will be repeated by the senators and he had “nothing more to say” to them.

“Tell me the reason why they would summon me again. For 12 hours, after 12 hours of asking you the same questions, you mean they would ask me to appear again? To be humiliated again? I have nothing new to say. Let’s not waste our time,” Abalos told reporters.

Abalos denied jumping the gun on the looming impeachment case against him when he resigned as chairman of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) last Monday.

Abalos said he resigned to remove the constitutional shield his office afforded him and to give him an opportunity to fight his accusers on a level playing field.

“What is the purpose of impeachment? The purpose is to remove the shield of a constitutional official from investigation because, as a constitutional official, I cannot be charged before anybody until I’m impeached. By resigning, I actually did everybody a favor because I took away that shield,” he said.

Abalos expressed confidence that he would overcome any legal challenges thrown at him, including possible plunder charges before the Ombudsman.

He said the charges of plunder will not prosper for lack of legal basis.

“All of these critics wanted to charge me with all the criminal offenses they could imagine. That’s up to them but I’m not a plunderer,” Abalos said.

Abalos made the statement as the Office of the Ombudsman started its investigation into the allegations against him.

Assistant Ombudsman Jose Tereso de Jesus said they have “technically” started the investigation on the allegations against the former Comelec chairman after formally receiving the complaint filed by private lawyer Ernesto Francisco.

“The case against Abalos was started by Francisco. In the two earlier cases, he was not included. He was still the current chairman of Comelec. During that time, (Abalos) was still an impeachable official. But in this complaint filed by Francisco, Abalos has (already) resigned. (So) we are looking into the complaint,” De Jesus said.

De Jesus, however, stressed no formal charges have been filed against Abalos since they are still looking into the allegations.

Abalos, for his part, attended a meeting yesterday formalizing his last day as Comelec chief.

Abalos just went over to turn over the helm to Commissioner Resurreccion Borra, the most senior of the five remaining officials of the poll body.

“There was no need for a program. So it was not intentional in the sense that everyone wanted to keep it hush-hush or anything. They just talked. It was merely a gathering of colleagues and basically endorsement of whatever is left to be done from the Office of the Chairman,” Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said.

Jimenez, though, admitted the mood was somber inside Abalos’ office, although food and drinks kept coming.

“He has been with the Comelec for the last six years so there’s a lot of sentiment there... there’s a lot of sadness but definitely he was firm in his decision to leave,” Jimenez said.

Jimenez said the five remaining poll commissioners “congratulated him (Abalos) for his tenure at the Comelec and many of the good things and moments that they shared with each other – from friendship to professional relations.”

For Commissioner Romeo Brawner, Abalos is “innocent” of the charges hurled against him. He lauded the former poll chief for his resignation as this spared the Comelec from the controversy.

Abalos’ staff members were emotional as they bid their boss good-bye. Some could not help crying while others embraced him. 

Abalos said he feels like a “free bird” now that he is out of government service.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed