Include 2 DA execs in ‘pork’ scam probe, Senate asked

MANILA, Philippines - The Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) yesterday urged the Senate Blue Ribbon committee to include two top officials of the Department of Agriculture (DA) in its investigation into the controversial pork barrel fund scam.

VACC lawyer Ariel Jawid told reporters that Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala and Assistant Secretary Ophelia Agawin should also be included in the inquiry for being former executives of National Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor), a government-owned and controlled corporation implicated in the multibillion-peso fund scam.

“It is suspect why the agriculture sector has remained resilient and resistant to change despite reforms in good governance being instituted by the current administration,” he lamented.

The lawyer said the “same tainted reputation” continues to thrive in the DA. “(Whistle-blower) Benhur Luy himself had said across the board, wheeling and dealing has been more difficult under this administration compared to the previous one except, of course, in the DA. Don’t our senators wonder why it’s business as usual there?” asked the lawyer.

Agawin and businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles were first implicated in the P728-million fertilizer fund scam under the previous administration in 2004.

She was re-appointed and later promoted to assistant secretary by Alcala who chaired Nabcor in 2010.

“And of all duties, she (Agawin) was put in charge of NGO (non-government organization) accreditation,” said Jawid. “Does it even come as a surprise that she was named by another whistle-blower, Merlin Suñas, as the DA’s conduit to Napoles’ web of fake NGOs?”

Another appointee from the supposed “Quezon core group” from the district where Alcala was congressman for two terms, is Undersecretary Claron Alcantara.

Both Alcala and Alcantara have pending complaints with the ombudsman in connection with the disbursement of P3.5 million of then Quezon Rep. Alcala’s pork barrel funds or Priority Development Assitance Fund (PDAF) to a dubious NGO. 

The NGO was Alcantara’s family-run firm, the Sir Pelagio Alcantara Development (Spade) Foundation Inc.

“Now this department of familiar names is also being accused of facilitating the disbursement of some P1.2 billion worth of pork barrel funds to another familiar GOCC (government-owned and controlled corporation), Nabcor, which eventually funneled these to fake NGOs. This practice has now officially persisted across two administrations, and in both instances, the COA (Commission on Audit) found irregularities in these transactions,” Jawid said.

According to COA, Nabcor was used as an implementing agency in the pork barrel scam, downloading funds from the DA for various projects into bogus NGOs.