Former Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. has expressed confidence that the graft charges hurled against him before the Sandiganbayan in connection with the aborted National Broadband Network (NBN) deal with the ZTE Corp., would eventually be dismissed for being baseless.

Abalos insisted that he is innocent, and just a victim of a vilification campaign.

In the first place, Abalos noted, “the mere execution by a purported witness of an affidavit is not sufficient to support a charge.”

“A mere charge or allegation of wrongdoing does not suffice since an accusation is not synonymous to guilt. There must always be sufficient evidence to support the charge,” Abalos said.

Abalos — a former city mayor and a trial court judge — said that the testimonies of Jose de Venecia III before the Senate were mere allegations bereft of evidence, and done in spite of his admission that his firm lost a contract that was awarded by the Philippine government directly to the ZTE Corp.

“It is not difficult to manufacture charges in an affidavit” and that “in this case, their truthfulness and veracity are tainted with spite and ill-will and admitted pecuniary self-interest,” Abalos said.

He said that in the absence of “competent, clear and convincing evidence to substantiate the allegations made by De Venecia, the same constitute mere accusations founded on speculations and conjectures, and partake of purely malicious and prevaricated claims.”

According to Abalos, his trips to China and his friendly relations with some officials of ZTE Corp. were by virtue of their mutual love for the sport of golf and “such could hardly qualify as indicators of the commission of direct or indirect bribery.”

“I had no official duty to intervene in the ZTE-NBN transaction, contrary to the allegation made by the complainants. In fact, even if the ZTE-NBN transaction was entered into during the election ban on public projects, unless there is some allegation or proof that I actually intervened in the project by exempting it from the ban on public projects, I could not have violated RA 3019 (the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act),” Abalos said.