Lawyer wants Abad charged over pork scam

A lawyer asked the Sandiganbayan to include Budget Sec. Florencio “Butch” Abad in the pork barrel scam case.

In a motion, Atty. Bonifacio Alentajan asked the court to include Abad in the plunder case over the alleged scam as the accused mastermind in the scheme.

“It appears clearly from the preceeding accusatorial allegations that DBM Sec. Florencio Abad, an alter ego of President Aquino, is the most guilty among the perpetrators of the cases plunder, graft anf corrupt practices,” according to the motion.

Alentajan said Abad should be impleaded in the case because it was his department which issued the special allotment release orders which signaled the release of the lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) to Napoles.

“Abad should have been jointly charged with the other respondents… The deliberate and erroneous exclusion as principal accused Abad constitutes selective or discriminatory prosecution,” the motion said.

Alentajan then went on to accuse Justice Sec. Leila De Lima and Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales for gross negligence for sparing Abad.

“His unjustified exclusion as the principal accused granted him unwarranted benefits and advantage due to the manifest partiality, evident bad faith, and gross inexcusable negligence by Justice Sec. Leila de Lima and Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales,” Alentajan said.

For his part, Abad said his lawyers are ready to face the complaint.

“He can do whatever he wants to do. We have our lawyers to take care of those things,” Abad said at the sidelines of the Development Budget Coordination Committee at the House of Representatives on Monday.

He added that he remained confident he is innocent over the scam.

“It’s easy to accuse and file cases. But at the end of the day, you ought to be able to substantiate and prove evidence. I think he’d never be able to do that,” Abad said.

Alentajan had also filed a plunder complaint before the Ombudsman against Abad over his savings impounding mechanism Disbursement Acceleration Program, portions of which were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

In her affidavit, accused pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles had tagged Abad as the mastermind of the scam. She claimed she started transacting with pork barrel funds after she met Abad, then a Batanes congressman. Abad denied the accusations.

During Napoles’ bail hearing, whistleblower Merlina Suñas had also testified that Abad was one of the earlier clients of Napoles. Suñas said though that the transactions with Abad did not push through.