Ilocos Norte, Bukidnon electric cooperative execs face estafa, theft complaints

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Former and current officials of Ilocos Norte and Bukidnon electric cooperatives accused of embezzling millions from employee retirement funds

MANILA, Philippines – Former and current top officials of the Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative (INEC) and First Bukidnon Electric Cooperative (FIBECO) were sued before the Department of Justice (DOJ) for allegedly embezzling millions of their employees’ retirement funds.

The National Electrification Administration (NEA) made the announcement in a press briefing  Tuesday, May 27, adding separate syndicated estafa and qualified theft complaints have already been filed with the justice department.

NEA Administrator Antonio Mariano Almeda said during the briefing that a third electric cooperative was also under investigation for similar offenses.

Almeda said the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) helped in the case build-up against those involved in the misappropriation of “the retirement fund of the employees” of  INEC and FIBECO.

In the alleged embezzlement at INEC, Almeda said six  former general and department managers were named as respondents. This syndicated estafa complaint involved the misappropriation of P118 million of the INEC employees retirement fund.

In the FIBECO case, Almeda said the former general manager was sued for qualified theft for allegedly embezzling at least P20 million of the cooperative’s fund 

The cases stemmed, according to Almeda, from the “mother of all retirement fund scams” that happened last year involving an employee of an electric cooperative in Central Luzon who embezzled P150 million of the coop’s  retirement fund. 

He said that incident triggered NEA “to sound off all the electric cooperatives to check on the retirement funds of  their own electric cooperative and it turned out that Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative does have an anomaly like that.”

“From there we were able to build a case and now we have a criminal complaint,” he added. – Rappler.com