Abalos, wife off to Taiwan to buy fish fry

MANILA, Philippines - Former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chair Benjamin Abalos and his wife left for Kaohsiung, Taiwan yesterday morning after the government granted his request to travel to Taiwan to purchase fish fry.

The Sandiganbayan, which is trying Abalos for graft in connection with the failed national broadband network deal, and two judges handling the electoral sabotage cases against him granted his request to travel to Taiwan from Jan 29 to 31.

The anti-graft court and the two judges allowed him to leave for Taiwan in November 2012 but he failed to do so due to an invalidated passport.

Abalos and his wife, Carmelita, were accompanied by two Taiwanese aquaculture technicians he said will help him propagate milkfish and grouper fingerlings in his fish farm in Zambales province.

“A lot of people don’t know that since the 1960s, I was already in fish farming in Hagonoy, Bulacan,” Abalos said, adding that he had a 250-hectare fishpond, where he earned a “substantial” income to support his family.

He said new technology for grouper propagation must be put in place in the Philippines since it yields high profits and the fish is in demand, particularly in the Chinese market.