MANILA, Philippines -- Former Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. is appealing the findings of the Office of the Ombudsman that he was liable for graft, admitting he assisted in the scuttled NBN-ZTE deal but still insisting he never did anything unlawful.

In his motion for reconsideration, Abalos said: "Surely, there is nothing unlawful, much less condemnable, in herein respondent assisting in the realization of a potential investment which would not only spur the economy but will also create jobs for his countrymen."

Abalos added that the Office of the Ombudsman also erred in believing Social Security System president Romulo Neri and Jose De Venecia III, who testified he offered them bribes. He said the allegations "are simply incredible."

The Office of the Ombudsman found Abalos and Neri liable for graft while it ruled that President Macapagal-Arroyo was immune from prosecution and cleared her husband Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo of allegations of corruption in the National Broadband Network (NBN) deal with China's ZTE Corp.

Neri has also appealed the decision while the group Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM), led by former vice president Teofisto Guingona, also filed a motion for partial reconsideration, saying Ms Arroyo and her husband should not have been spared.

The Office of the Ombudsman said Ms Arroyo was immune from suit while there was insufficient evidence against Mike Arroyo.

But the CCM said: This is not yet the proper forum to invoke the President's immunity from suit. Such immunity is an affirmative defense, which the courts are more competent to rule on."

The group also said the allegations against Ms Arroyo are criminal in nature and therefore not covered by presidential immunity: "These actions cannot be considered as official acts of the President because they are illegal."

It also said that clearing Mike Arroyo of any liability "is an erroneous finding" since the evidence showed that he "took special interest in the subject contract, and actively performed his part in intimidating and coercing competing bidders with a view to eliminating them."

In his motion for reconsideration, Abalos downplayed Neri and De Venecia's statements implicating him as "uncorroborated and unverifiable."

He said: "There is reason to believe that they are in fact concocted, with the associated witnesses acting in concert to bring down herein respondent and scuttle the project that respondent De Venecia III and his cohorts failed to bag."

He said the meeting with ZTE officials in China, for which the Office of the Ombudsman also faulted him, was actually "initiated by and arranged for, not by herein respondent, but by respondent De Venecia III."

De Venecia's company had lost the broadband deal to ZTE.

Abalos said he first met ZTE officials when they happened to play golf in the same social club Abalos frequented. He said his subsequent meetings with the ZTE officials were "a matter of maintaining friendship borne by a common love for golf."