Abad denies he tutored Napoles on `pork’ scam

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad denied Friday allegations that he tutored pork barrel mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles in designing the pork scam.

“These fresh allegations that I tutored Janet Lim-Napoles in designing the PDAF scam are simply not true. I’ve been called several names since I began serving in this Aquino administration, but ‘Pork King’ is certainly the most ridiculous. It would in fact be funny if it weren’t such a blatant lie,” Abad said in a statement.

Abad said he never dealt with Napoles, much less acted as a mentor in executing her alleged schemes.

“There’s a lot of work to be done. We in the Department of Budget and Management and the Aquino administration would continue to fight for a government free of corruption, even if our transparency and accountability reforms run counter to the interests of some,” he said.

On Thursday, reports surfaced that the unsanitized version of Napoles’ pork scam tagged Abad as the “tutor” of the pork barrel scam.