Abad ready for face-off with Napoles, says Palace

MANILA, Philippines–Budget Secretary Florencio Abad could face Janet Lim-Napoles and rebut her charges he benefited from the P10-billion pork barrel scam in any forum, Malacañang said on Wednesday.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Abad could prove there was no official document that would link him to the scam.

Lacierda said anybody could access the Department of Budget and Management’s website and find out that the DBM did not issue any special allotment release order (Saro) for a certain electric cooperative involving Abad.

“I am confident he will be able to answer Mrs. Napoles’s claims,” he told reporters in a briefing. “Let’s wait for an invitation from elsewhere, from somewhere and Secretary Abad will be more than willing to tell the truth.”

And neither would Abad “depart” from what he has said, he added.

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, who is fighting an indictment for plunder and graft in connection with the scam, has challenged Abad to face Napoles in a hearing so the public would know “who is lying.”

In her expanded affidavit, Napoles claimed that Abad mentored her on using nongovernment organizations in the pork racket. She said she met Abad at a Japanese restaurant in the Edsa Shangri-la Plaza Hotel, where Abad explained the use of Saro.

Napoles claimed that Abad used the Batanes Electric Cooperative to implement his pork barrel project. Abad has flatly denied her claims.

Lacierda also shrugged off Bishop Teodoro Bacani’s call for Abad’s resignation, reiterating that there was no proof to link the Secretary to the scam.