Ileco 3 prexy recants, says woman from Artech gave money
A day after he accused Iloilo Gov. Niel Tupas Sr. of giving him money purportedly to support a contract with a power firm, the president of the Iloilo Electric Cooperative 3 is singing a different tune.
Mateo Baldoza, Ileco 3 president, said he made “a mistake” during an interview with radio station dyOK Aksyon Radyo because he was in a rush.
“I got confused during the interview because I was hurrying up to attend Mass,” Baldoza said in a telephone interview yesterday.
He said that it was not Tupas who gave him an envelope containing P75,000 in cash during a meeting at the governor's residence in Jaro District on April 17 but a woman who was part of the group belonging to the Applied Research Technologies Inc. (Artech).
“We were in the sala while the governor, the other officers of the cooperative and the Artech officials were in the dining room when she handed me the envelope. I refused to accept it but she insisted so I said I will give it to charity,” Baldoza said.
Baldoza said he could not remember the name of the woman but described her as “in her early 20s.”
The meeting between Ileco 3 and Artech officials was allegedly initiated by Tupas.
Artech was negotiating a Power Supply Agreement (PSA)with Ileco 3 which is the sole electric distributor of 13 towns in northern Iloilo.
On Tuesday, Baldoza told Aksyon Radyo's anchorman Joel Tormon that it was Tupas who handed him the envelope.
Baldoza alleged that when the governor handed him the envelope, Tupas said: “Buligan ta lang da sila (Let us help them).”
When the surprised anchorman asked him again if he was sure that it was the governor who gave him the envelope containing the money, Baldoza repeated his earlier answer.
Tupas in an interview with dyOK admitted that he hosted the meeting but denied that he handed out an envelope containing money to Baldoza.
“That is not true,” the governor said.
He said he initiated the meeting because he wanted more power plants to be set up so that the price of electricity will be lower.
Baldoza confirmed his earlier statement that in a succeeding meeting of the board of directors at a hotel here on April 21, the same woman gave him a white envelope containing another P75,000 in cash.
During that meeting, Baldoza alleged that the board signed the PSA with Artech despite his objection and that of another board member.
“I voiced out my opposition because the price that Artech offered was P6.63 per kilowatt-hour which was higher than what we agreed to purchase,” he said in the telephone interview.
Baldoza, 73, had served as the presiding judge for eight years of the Sara-Ajuy-Lemery, Iloilo Municipal Circuit Trial Court. He also served as an election registrar for nine years in San Dionisio.
He said he will donate the P150,000 to charity with part of it to the town's Knight of Columbus chapter and for the repair of the town's church.
Engineer Wilfredo Billena, spokesperson of the Panay-Guimaras Power Supply Consortium (PGSC), said Artech was not among the five independent power producers that submitted bids to supply seven electric cooperatives in Panay and Guimaras.
The PGSC had earlier asked for offers from power producers to supply its requirements reaching 90 megawatts.
The consortium is composed of the Iloilo Electric Cooperative (Ileco) 1, Ileco 2, Ileco 3, Antique Electric Cooperative, Aklan Electric Cooperative, Capiz Electric Cooperative and Guimaras Electric Cooperative.
Billena said they decided to accept the offer of Asea One Power Corp. because it submitted the lowest price at P5.90 per kwh and will supply electricity using biomass power plants.