Alcala let off the hook in garlic scam, as usual

Another media exposé bears fruit, though small. A hundred-plus agriculture bureaucrats and smugglers were found to have rigged garlic supply and prices last Mar.-Jun. But the NBI didn’t probe high enough to their political patron. So expect Justice Sec. Leila de Lima, who oversaw it as Officer for Fair Competition, to be lashed anew for partiality, like in the pork barrel plunder and convicts’ lavish lifestyles.

Bureau of Plant Industry ex-chief Clarito Barron, and his deputies Merle Bautista-Palacpac and Luben Quijano Marasigan are to be charged with graft. Barron allegedly was bribed at least P240,000 to favor a cartel led by one Lea Cruz. Three other garlic importers cornered the clearances that Barron issued. Eased out of the business, long-time trader Lilybeth Valenzuela squealed. In a white paper she detailed the multibillion-peso monopolizing of hundred thousand tons of annual garlic imports. About P200 million in dirty money went to agri-bureaucrats in the five years since 2010. Last summer imports landed at only P30 a kilo were retailed 1,500 percent at P360. Agriculture bigwigs abetted it by contriving a garlic shortage, in reneging on pledges to buy local harvests. Ripped off, in effect, were farmers and consumers. Presidential Assistant Francis Pangilinan, newly appointed in May for agricultural modernization and food security, examined the price spikes in rice, garlic, onions, pork, and vegetables. Verifying the garlic cartelizing, he reported to President Noynoy Aquino, who ordered the inquiry.

Journalists who exposed the scam are dissatisfied with the NBI findings. Whistleblower Valenzuela lamented, in a radio-TV interview yesterday with multi-awarded broadcaster Ted Failon, that Agri-Sec. Proceso Alcala was let off the hook. This was despite her testimony that the Cabinet man had ignored her cries against the price fixers. She also had sworn that Barron quoted Alcala to her many times as handpicking the favored import grantees. Over brunch with me then, Alcala defended Lea Cruz as “a good smuggler,” whatever that means. He also had his publicists slur Valenzuela as a smuggler, and investigative journalists as her gofers. That same trick Alcala employed then against media exposers of a rice cartel’s ties to the National Food Authority that he chaired. He called them paid hacks of rice smuggler Davidson Bangayan alias David Tan. It turned out later, though, that his NFA had granted Bangayan’s five firms several rice import permits from 2011 to 2013.

Last Sept. Pangilinan’s report to Malacañang led to Barron’s sacking from the BPI. But Alcala hastily took in the latter as special assistant for field operations. The agri-secretary cannot claim to be wisely keeping his friends close and his foes closer. It’s just his “trapo” (literally, “rag”; also short for “traditional politico”) way of rewarding accomplices. Pangilinan’s takeover of the NFA in May also had led to the departure of Alcala’s one-time congressional aide, his administrator Orlan Calayag, and the latter’s executive assistant Dennis Guerrero. Alcala lost no time making Calayag his chief of staff, and Guerrero spokesman. Alcala keeps denying having received any notice, but Calayag, NFA deputy Ludovico Jarina, and he have been charged with plunder before the Ombudsman. This is for allegedly overpricing the NFA’s P7-billion imports and cargo handling of rice in 2013-2014.

Pangilinan himself distrusts the NBI. Recently, his nominee to the NFA and a legal counsel were framed in a P15-million extortion. He wonders why the supposedly crack investigators swallowed hook, line, and sinker the tale of a rice adulterator whom the NFA had been caught red-handed. Ignored were facts: that the new NFA chief and the lawyer had just been introduced six days prior and so were unlikely to collude in a heinous crime, the bank accounts were bogus, and the dates and times of supposed mobile texts were in reverse — with the payoff being acknowledged first, followed by the designation of the dropoff, and lastly the initial contact. Alcala and Calayag must have had the last laugh there.

Alcala is national treasurer of P-Noy’s ruling Liberal Party. P-Noy keeps him in office despite the damage he has wrought, and continues to wreak, on agriculture. It’s like keeping LP acting president Joseph Emilio Abaya as transport secretary, despite the inability to get projects off the ground, and the well-documented maintenance contract scams at Metro Manila’s commuter railways. Also, keeping Florencio Abad as budget chief despite the latter’s concoction of the unconstitutional Disbursement Acceleration Program for which P-Noy is at risk of being criminally charged upon term end.    

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READERS’ REACTIONS: to recent columns about Abaya’s unjust increases in MRT-3 fares, and Comelec retiring chairman Sixto Brillantes’ P2-billion midnight deal with shady Venezuelan firm Smartmatic Corp.:

Rustum Mirasol: “Recent news quoted Abaya as saying, ‘The flying public deserves much better service. We sympathize with those who lost precious hours with their families and loved ones on Christmas, and will see to it that Cebu Pacific will answer for possible mismanagement.’ Magnifico! How about doing the same to MRT-3 contractors for non-maintenance? Or are MRT-3 passengers lesser mortals than airline fliers? Just thinking aloud.”

Rolly Cantero, Pasay City: “The Ombudsman is investigating Abaya for the MRT-3 contract scams. Meanwhile, P-Noy keeps backing him. How will Abaya’s fare raises look if and when the Ombudsman suspends him for six months pending indictment? Or does he think he can get away with it?”

Carsy Silvestre: “What is Brillantes doing, giving Smartmatic P2 billion to inspect and clean 82,000 voting machines that are under warranty? That’s P24,390 per machine. I have my computer serviced for just P800 a year, and that’s only after it came free during the warranty period.”

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