Former company exec wants Lopez probed for graft

DENR Secretary Gina Lopez speaks at the Commission on Appointments confirmation hearing at the Senate on Thursday, March 9, 2017. (Photo by LYN RILLON/Philippine Daily Inquirer)

A former official of a renewable energy company asked the Office of the Ombudsman on Wednesday to investigate Environment Secretary Gina Lopez for graft for pressuring a Department of Energy (DOE) official to give the company a contract and having the company pay for her trip to Paris last October.

Vienna Tañada, former business manager of EcoGlobal Inc., alleged that Lopez pressured DOE Director Mario Marasigan last September to award EcoGlobal a service contract for a $100-million solar power plant in Zamboanga City.

Lopez and five others left for Paris last Oct. 2, and the next day the DOE awarded EcoGlobal a renewable energy service contract, according to the complaint.

All-expense-paid trip

In her complaint, Tañada said EcoGlobal CEO Jean-Philippe Henry issued a letter of guarantee last Sept. 29 to the French Embassy in Manila pledging to pay for the airfare, hotel accommodations, insurance and travel allowances of Lopez and her party for the duration of their business trip.

Tañada claimed internal company communications showed Henry had been regularly communicating with Lopez, complaining about the difficulty of getting the DOE to approve the company’s application for a renewable energy service contract filed in October 2015.

She said Lopez sent text messages last September to Marasigan, director of the DOE’s Renewable Energy Management Bureau, pressuring the energy official to award the contract to EcoGlobal.

Lopez was unavailable for comment on Wednesday. She is in the United States.

Tañada is one of the company’s former employees who have filed charges of estafa, nonpayment of wages and illegal dismissal against Henry.

Henry is also facing a complaint filed by former EcoGlobal investor Mercedes Zobel for falsifying documents.

Zobel alleged that Henry and fellow company official Jean Yves Rovani illegally amended their memorandum of agreement by forging her initials in order to boost her participation in EcoGlobal’s power project from the original 10 percent to 60 percent.