2 state firms in ‘pork’ scam abolished

MANILA, Philippines - Two government corporations under the Department of Agriculture (DA), which the Commission on Audit (COA) has linked to the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam, have been abolished.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala yesterday told the House appropriations committee chaired by Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab that he has closed down National Agribusiness Corp. (NABCOR) and Zamboanga del Norte Agricultural College Rubber Estate Corp. (ZNAC-REC).

“They are now winding down their affairs. We are no longer downloading funds to them,” he said.

He was responding to questions raised by Rep. Antonio Tinio of party-list group Alliance of Concerned Teachers.

President Aquino has a standing order to concerned officials to abolish corporations and agencies linked to the pork barrel scam.

Despite the closure of NABCOR and ZNAC-REC, Alcala said the government is pursuing cases against their officials whom the Office of the Ombudsman has charged before the Sandiganbayan in connection with the pork barrel scam.

Aside from the two corporations, two other DA agencies had been linked to pork barrel fund irregularities. These are the National Agricultural and Fishery Council and National Dairy Authority.

NABCOR and ZNAC-REC, together with National Livelihood Development Corp. (NLDC) and Technology Resource Center (TRC), figured prominently in the COA special audit report on the alleged misuse of billions in Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocations of scores of senators and congressmen in 2007 to 2009.

The NLDC is a subsidiary of Land Bank of the Philippines, while TRC is under the Department of Science and Technology.

The PDAF was the P25-billion annual congressional pork barrel until the Supreme Court scrapped it in November 2013 for being unconstitutional. It allocated P200 million for each senator and P70 million for each member of the House of Representatives.

Sens. Jinggoy Estrada, Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon Revilla Jr. are facing plunder and graft charges in connection with the PDAF scam.

Charged with them are alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles, the senators’ senior aides and officers of the agencies that served as conduits of the lawmakers’ PDAF allocations.

A fourth senator, Gregorio Honasan, has been charged before the Office of the Ombudsman in relation to the same scam.

Other agencies that have been linked to PDAF irregularities are the Natural Resources Development Corp. (NRDC) and Philippine Forest Corp., which are under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR); and National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF).