NBI: ERC chair denies bidding irregularities

Francisco Jose Villa Jr. (Photo courtesy of Charie Villa)

The chair of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on Thursday denied irregularities in the bidding of the  P490,000 audio-visual project that the late director Francisco Villa Jr. mentioned in one of his three handwritten suicide notes.

Lawyer Nathaniel Ramos, executive officer of National Bureau of Investigation anti-graft division, said the project was a series of infomercials that ERC chairperson Jose Vicente Salazar wanted  to create public awareness about ERC.

“The project didn’t push through that’s why Salazar couldn’t understand why he was being implicated in the suicide note,” Ramos said.

Salazar said he would rather let the NBI shed light on the issue.

Ramos said the ERC bid the project twice but both failed. The last bidding was dated Aug. 12, 2016.

“According to Salazar, the project was less than P500,000, and would require his office’s intervention. Although he admitted knowing Luis Morelos,” Ramos said, referring to the man  tapped to do an audio-visual presentation allegedly “through a rigged selection process.”