Evangelist's son faces graft raps

MANILA, Philippines –  Former Citizens Battle Against Corruption (CIBAC) party-list congressman Emmanuel Joel Villanueva,son of evangelist and defeated presidential candidate Eddie Villanueva, was charged with graft before the Office of the Ombudsman yesterday for allegedly illegally representing the party-list group despite a disqualification ruling by the Supreme Court (SC).

Milagros Amores of Pililla, Rizal lodged a complaint against him and 10 other respondents, accusing them of violating the anti-graft law, Omnibus Election Code, and other laws.

She accused Villanueva of allegedly submitting and signing falsified certificates of nomination and acceptance under oath as a CIBAC party-list nominee in 2007 “despite being ineligible to do so.” Amores said a June 29, 2010 SC ruling declared Villanueva as “not qualified to be a nominee of either the youth sector or the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and their families sector in the May 2007 elections.”

Villanueva, she said, also represented CIBAC’s youth and OFW sector in the May 2010 polls.

By allegedly illegally sitting as a party-list congressman, Amores said Villanueva disbursed public funds and received salaries and other benefits to the prejudice of the public, the government and persons who are supposed to be entitled to the seat “he illegally and unlawfully took over.”

Amores also named in her complaint former Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos; former and present Comelec Commissioners Resurreccion Borra, Florentino Tuason Jr., Rene Sarmiento, and Nicodemo Ferrer; Josilyn de Mesa; former House of Representatives secretary general Roberto Nazareno; CIBAC vice president Cinchona Cruz-Gonzales; CIBAC secretary general Virginia Jose; and Emil Galang and Mikhail Farolan, also of CIBAC.