DA to shut down 2 agencies involved in ‘pork’ scam

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Agriculture (DA) will padlock two of its corporations for involvement in the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam.

“I will close them down. My timetable is within this year,” Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said yesterday in a television interview.

Alcala identified the two state firms as  the National Agri-business Corp. (NABCOR) and Zamboanga del Norte Rubber Estate Corp. (ZREC).

“As of now, I am studying what to do with their personnel who are not involved in the scam and who are not facing charges,” Alcala said.

According to the Commission on Audit (COA), the two corporations were among six state agencies that had become “notorious” for being the favorite fund conduits of senators and congressmen, whose funds, amounting to a total of P6.2 billion between 2007 and 2009, ended up with bogus foundations and non-government organizations (NGOs).

Of those foundations, 10 to 12 were linked to alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles and had cornered P2.1 billion or a third of the P6.2 billion.

The National Bureau of Investigation and whistle-blowers led by Benhur Luy, a relative and former trusted aide of Napoles, have filed plunder charges against Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon Revilla Jr., and Napoles with the Office of the Ombudsman.

According to the complaint, the three senators received P581 million in kickbacks from the Napoles NGOs, which received hundreds of millions in pork barrel funds from them.

Included in the plunder case were Assistant Agriculture Secretary Salvador Salacup, who headed ZREC during the years covered by the audit; Allan Javellana, NABCOR president; Gondelina Amata, president of National Livelihood Development Corp. (NLDC); and Dennis Cunanan, director general of Technology Resource Center (TRC) and his predecessor Antonio Ortiz.

The COA special audit report said TRC, NLDC and NABCOR funneled the biggest amounts of lawmakers’ funds to NGOs amounting to P2.432 billion, P1.259 billion and 1.227 billion, respectively, while ZREC gave P282 million in pork barrel allocations to foundations.

Alcala said he has asked all those involved in the scam, including Salacup, to go on leave although the Office of the Ombudsman has not taken administrative action against them.

Salacup goes on leave

Salacup said he filed a leave of absence on Monday, which took effect yesterday.

“I’m preparing for the charges, consulting with lawyers who have volunteered to help me,” Salacup said in a phone interview yesterday.

Salacup headed ZREC when the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) was transferred to Napoles’ NGOs between 2008 to 2009. ZREC allegedly received around P230 million to P240 million from 2008 to 2009 in pork barrel funds.               – With Czeriza Valencia