Businessman Norris Oculam will resign as officer of the Bohol Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Inc. (BCCI) once he gets his formal appointment as finance officer of gubernatorial bet Leoncio Evasco, Jr.

He issued the statement during the meeting of the BCCI board at the Metro Center Hotel last Thursday.

Oculam who was in the frontline in the organization of ABAKA chapters, a group identified with Evasco, explained that ABAKA is not a political group but a non-government organization.

While Oculam is known to be the chairman of ABAKA, he insisted that his position does not make him a partisan since ABAKA does not campaign for any candidate and is a group whose advocacy is against corruption.

However, Oculam prefers to resign from the BCCI upon receiving the appointment which he expects to be carried out soon, instead of just taking a leave of absence during the campaign period.

His statement before the BCCI followed after he was identified by Evasco himself during a radio interview to be the one of the financiers behind the release of P10,000 cash each of the group’s municipal councilor candidates province-wide.

Evasco mentioned Oculam and a certain Meloy Mercado from Davao as his benefactors in what he described as a “gift giving” to the candidates for councilors.  

Oculam told some chamber officers that the financial support for Evasco will be coming from Davao group who will flood Bohol with money for the election. He even claimed that gubernatorial bet Rep. Art Yap will eventually give up his gubernatorial bid by next month.