Napocor detractors told: Put up or shut up

The corporate secretary of the National Power Corp. (Napocor), Alberto L. Pangcog, reacted strongly yesterday to the plunder charges raised against him by lawyer Cesar B. Jimenea Jr. of the so-called Crusaders Against Graft and Corruption in Napocor (CAGCN) calling them "outright lies from a feeble imagination."

Included in the letter-complaint is Napocor president Jesus N. Alcordo.

"I challenge pañero, Jimenea to duly subscribe and swear to his allegations, and I will sue him out of his shirt and his practice, whatever that is, " Pangcog, Napocor corporate secretary, said.

Jimenea, in an unsubscribed letter to Ombudsman Aniano Desierto dated Nov. 5, 2001 charged Pangcog with plunder for the release of P470 million to the government’s countryside electrification program, ‘O Ilaw’ on June 1, 2001. O Ilaw was part of former President Estrada’s poverty alleviation program, which targeted the 100 percent electrification of the country by 2004. Present coverage stands at about 87 percent.

Pangcog, according to Jimenea, was also guilty of violating the penal code for allegedly falsifying the minutes of the May 28, 2001 Napocor board meeting; alleged violation of the anti-graft law by inducing another public officer to violate rules and regulations, as when "the Disbursement Voucher was personally hand-carried by Atty. Pangcog to the various residences of the NPC officials concerned, including some of our (CAGCN) members to solicit their initials x x x Pangcog was able to corner them in their residences and using the ascendancy of his position obtained their initials on the Disbursement Voucher."

Included in the letter-complaint is Napocor president Jesus N. Alcordo.

Pangcog vehemently denied all the allegation as he challenged Jimenea to swear out a formal complaint, so that they could file their answer in the proper forum.

"The Special Board Meeting of 28 May 2001, and the certification issued merely summarized the discussions of the ‘O Ilaw’ project. The NP Board Resolution 2000-133 dated 16 (not 15 as erroneously copied by Jimenea) Oct 2000 and the memoranda/letters of Secretaries Tiaoqui and Camacho are all matters of public record," Pangcog said.

Claims of "lightning speed" in the processing of the O Ilaw project are seriously out of-context, Pangcog emphasized. The program to achieve 100 percent electrification is a long-standing priority that was given sharp focus by Mr. Tiaoqui with his direction for all government power agencies, Napocor principal among them, to pool resources and implement the program. This was October last year, he said, as he cited the PIB budget programmed at 15 percent disbursement for 2000, 50 percent for 2001, and 35 percent, for 2002.

Had there been no election ban on projects from February to mid May, the allocation for 2001 could have been disbursed earlier. Pangcog explained as he noted that by end of October 2001, P341.8 million had been disbursed of the P470 million released in June.

Pangcog said all the pertinent documents had been presented at a media briefing in mid-November after the initial media breakout on the controversy.

"We thought that the next we would hear about Jimenea will be from the Ombudsman, but apparently, no complaint in proper form has been made yet, as it is stil through media that the wild and reckless charges against us are being litigated," Pangcog complained.

On the allegations of his coercing the voucher signatories at their residences, Pangcog branded this a brazen lie. "I do not even know where they live," Pangcog stressed. He also added that the parties who process the voucher are prepared to testify on his behalf.

The O Ilaw program is too important to be trifled with by those who have an agenda alien to public service, Pangcog warned.

Napocor employees represented by their associations at the executive, supervisory and rank and file levels support the O Ilaw initiatives, Pangcog noted.

The records, he said, will bear us out. The output of O Ilaw which has energized 125 projects in 82 electric cooperatives this year, is the best proof that this was a project for public benefit rather than private gain, Pangcog concluded.