‘Due diligence may have saved gov’t execs grief’

A graft complaint has been filed in the Office of the Ombudsman against top officials of the Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC) for pursuing a “highly anomalous” petroleum trading contract.

Bernardo V. Lopez, who identified himself as a university professor, filed the complaint on Friday, accusing the PNOC-EC officials of pursuing the deal despite advice from Malacañang last year to hold the agreement in abeyance, and in violation of various provisions of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Named respondents were PNOC-EC president and chief executive officer Pedro Aquino Jr. and directors Rafael Iriarte, Ralph Pastor Salazar, Joseph Loreto Emnas, Fernando Petilla and Fernando Zulueta.

PNOC-EC is a government-owned and -controlled corporation dealing in oil and other energy services.

Foreign trading partner Pionaire Finance Ltd. was included as a private respondent.

The PNOC-EC officials have yet to air their side on the complaint.

Lopez said the PNOC-EC officials conspired with Pionaire to cause undue injury to the government and give undue benefit to the private firm.

Aquino, in particular, allegedly pursued the trading deal with Pionaire, disregarding an Oct. 5, 2015 order by then-Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa to hold their memorandum of understanding (MOU) in abeyance, the complaint stated.

Aquino supposedly disregarded the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel’s warning for PNOC-EC to undertake due diligence on Pionaire as required by law, the complaint added.

Lopez claimed that if the PNOC-EC officials had really undertaken the due diligence, they would have discovered that Pionaire misrepresented its claim of being registered in Hong Kong when the MOU was signed on Aug. 25, 2015.

He said Pionaire was found to have only been registered in Hong Kong on Oct. 4, 2015, six weeks after the MOU was signed.