ILOILO – Former councilor Plaridel Nava of Iloilo City accused an engineer in the provincial government’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) of extortion.
He went to the office of Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. yesterday and asked that Engineer Bienvenido Batalliones III, a member of the BAC’s Technical Working Group, be investigated.
Defensor assured Nava that an investigation will be launched.
Panay News tried to reach Batalliones for comment but he has yet to reply as of press time.
According to Nava, sometime in August this year while he was in the United States a staff of his construction company informed him that a supposed contractor went to their office.
This contractor asked, said Nava, if his company was willing to finance a project of the provincial government.
“Gintawgan ako sang staff ko kag gin-ask kon interesado ako mag-finance ti hambal ko okay man kay maayo man ang project. Nangayo sia sa staff ko sang P30,000 para sa advance. Ti, ginhambalan ko man ang staff ko nga i-release ang P30,000,” said the former councilor.
According to Nava, he was clueless that the contractor was Batalliones until he came back from the city in early October.
He then got suspicious when his company got no updates on the capitol project.
“Nag-ask ako ngaa wala balita ang project kag ginpa-inquire ko. Last week, natalupangdan ko nga indi sia gali contractor; government employee sia ya. Tapos gin-istorya namon ang contractor nga nagdaog, wala sia ya idea sa sina nga arrangement. Ang gwa bali gin-misrepresent ya to dasun ginkuhaan ya kami kwarta tapos dula na sia,” Nava said.
Nava turned over to Governor Defensor several documents. He also brought his staff as witness./PN
