Alcala assured of P-Noy’s backing

MANILA, Philippines - Amid controversies hounding his department, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala’s instructions from President Aquino is to continue the ongoing programs of the department.

“(I was instructed by the President) to continue (the ongoing programs of the Department of Agriculture). As long as he can see that we are on the right track with our programs, we have no reason to stop,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the Pangasinan leg of Makina-Saka Agri-Machinery Roadshow.

“So long as I have the trust of the President, I can’t leave the farmers,” he added.

The DA is currently pursuing the Food Staples Sufficiency Program (FSSP) that aims to attain self-sufficiency in major food staples like rice and corn.

The department is also working on increasing farm mechanization to enable the country to catch up with the agriculture mechanization efforts of neighboring southeast Asian countries.

The DA is also working on opening up new markets for major farm and fisheries products to narrow the trade deficit.

The DA has been implicated in the illegal transfer of pork barrel funds of legislators to fake non-government organizations run by businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles.

Alcala earlier explained that he was not aware that the Napoles-run NGOs were fake. He explained that the department accredited the NGOs because the proper supporting documents were in place.

Alcala also said earlier that from July 2010 to Aug. 2012, the DA stopped accepting PDAF funding but were told by lawmakers and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) during the department budget hearings in 2011 that the department cannot stop accepting PDAF funds because these are programmed.

It was also discovered by the Commission on Audit that two state-run agriculture corporations—Zamboanga del Norte Rubber Estate Corp (ZREC) and National Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor)—have become conduits of pork funds  by senators and congressmen.

DA assistant secretary Salvador Salacup, who served as president of ZREC at the time when funds were transferred to fake NGOs., has taken a leave of absence from his duties as he readies for graft charges filed by the Office of the Ombudsman against him.

Salacup is among the respondents in the plunder case filed by the NBI against three senators and a slew of other government officials allegedly involved in the PDAF scandal.

DA spokesman Emerson Palad said the department has not yet received a copy of the complaint.

“As soon as we receive a copy of the complaint, we will study the case and we will be ready to answer he allegations against out officials,” he said.