WHAT WENT BEFORE: ERC controversy

In November last year, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez advised the energy committee to look into the controversy that followed the suicide of Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Director Francisco Jose Villa Jr.

Last Nov. 9, Villa shot himself and left suicide notes revealing corruption in the agency.

“My greatest fear in the bids and awards committee is the AVP by Luis Morelos which the chair and CEO, Jose Vicente B. Salazar, chose through a rigged selection system. That will be a criminal act,” Villa wrote in one of the notes.

His sister, journalist Charie Villa, said the notes showed that her brother had been under stifling pressure to approve procurement contracts without bidding or hire consultants as chair of the ERC bids and awards committee.

In the wake of the suicide, President Duterte ordered an investigation and demanded the resignation of the entire ERC. Some commissioners, however, said they would not resign because stepping down would not be in the best interest of the quasijudicial body.

Instead of resigning, Salazar requested a meeting with the President to explain the side of the power industry watchdog.

Salazar said in a statement that he had instructed all officials and employees to “fully cooperate” with the National Bureau of Investigation and the Commission on Audit, which are looking into Villa’s allegations. —COMPILED BY ANA ROA, INQUIRER RESEARCH

Sources: Inquirer Archives