The vice mayor of Bansud town, Oriental Mindoro said Thursday she is ready to cooperate with authorities after fugitive engineer Dennis Abagon was arrested in a Quezon City apartment she owns.

VM Alma “Princess ACM” Mirano denied harboring Abagon, the former officer-in-charge of the Planning and Design Division of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for MIMAROPA region. He was arrested Sunday in a unit his family had been renting since October.

“I did not hide him,” Mirano told reporters. “I am willing to help the investigation so the truth will come out.”

Abagon is among several senior public works officials facing graft, malversation and plunder charges before the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court.

The charges relate to alleged irregularities in a P289 million-peso flood-control project in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro.

Prosecutors allege Abagon and other officials endorsed and certified project designs without proper authority, enabling the misappropriation of public funds.

Mirano said she was in an adjacent unit when National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents arrived.

She said she offered to guide them through another entrance but was turned down because it was not specified in the arrest order.

The vice mayor said a man named Joel Briones arranged the lease and that she was unaware her tenant was wanted.

“I only knew a DPWH employee was renting the place. I had no idea there were cases filed against him,” she said.

The NBI has not commented on Mirano’s statements.