SEN. Ping Lacson links Gloria to P2.5B swine scam

April 4, 2008

SEN. Panfilo Lacson will ask the Senate to investigate Quedancor’s P2.5 billion Swine Program fund in 2004, saying there is an indication that President Arroyo had a direct hand in the anomaly surrounding it.

“Nang inilipat ni GMA ang Quedancor sa OP (Office of the President) mula sa DA (Department of Agriculture) ‘tsaka nangyari ang ’swine-dling’. May indikasyon na may direct hand ang Pangulo sa anomalya ala fertilizer scam,” he said.

Quedancor (Quedan and Rural Credit Corp.) was placed under the OP during the elections in 2004.

Lacson said just like the P728-million fertilizer fund scam, the billions of pesos supposedly for the purchase of livestock could have been used to fund the 2004 campaign of Team Unity candidates.

Harry Roque of the UP College of Laws said that the Commission on Audit discovered that at least P1.4 billion of the P2.5-billion fund that Quedancor released for the swine industry remains unliquidated.

He said the farmers who supposedly received the hogs were paid P200 to P300 to sign papers that indicated they received the livestock.

Sen. Francis Escudero urged Quedancor to publish the name of borrowers who have been remiss in repaying their loan.

“The list will tell us who hogged the swine funds, and if the money was indeed used to fatten some pigs or fatten someone’s bank account or campaign war chest,” he said.

Escudero said Quedancor officers cannot give the “limp excuse” that the list of beneficiaries was lost. “As a financial institution, they are supposed to be as fastidious about records as bankers.”

“If the distribution (of pigs) did happen, then there should be a paper trail like receipts and vouchers,” he said.

Roque called on the Bangko Sentral to investigate the controversy, saying the government’s swine program is “intended to fail” as funds disbursed for the project had no guarantee of payment.

Roque said the admission of officials of Quedancor of irregularities in its swine program has affected the banking system.

Nelson Buenaflor, Quedancor president (on leave), on Thursday said the program was full of loopholes.

He said some farmers were unable to pay back their loans due to some “flaws in the system,” resulting in undetermined losses for the government but he added that these were “isolated cases.”

Roque said the irregularity involving the swine program is not an issue of uncollected debts but of uncollected receivables. “Apparently, the scheme is designed for the disbursement of money without any intention of payment,” Roque said.

Roque said the transaction’s doubtful collection is due to the fact that no party is named responsible to pay in the contract between Quedancor and Iloilo Feeds Corp., Nueva Foods Corp., BIRKS Agri-Livestock and ACL Corp.

The four companies cornered the Quedancor swine deal without any bidding and did not have enough capital.

“How can the Quedancor run after sums of money from these companies which only have at least P62,500 worth of capital stocks?” he said, adding the four companies were incorporated only in 2003, a year before the funds for the project were released.

“Quedancor can never pay the unliquidated funds since it is facing bankruptcy already,” he added.

Roque also said the COA report confirmed some P700 million in unrecorded receivables in 2004, and a bigger amount in unrecorded receivables - P1.6 billion - in 2005.

He said another anomaly involving the swine program involved up to P300 million in questionable “arranger’s fees” for the loans in the program and P2 million in “attorney’s fees.”

He said this was unusual because the loan was between the Land Bank of the Philippines, a government bank, and Quedancor, a government-owned and controlled corporation.

Roque said aside from the Department of Agriculture, the Office of the President should carry the burden of disproving the irregularities of the project since Quedancor was placed under its jurisdiction in 2004.

“Since Quedancor was under the OP at the time the project was implemented, the President should carry the burden of proving that the COA report is wrong and that there is no irregularity involved in the program. Since she assumed control over Quedancor, she should also be doing some explaining,” he said.

Roque was referring to Executive Order 322 dated July 2004, which ordered the transfer of Quedancor to the OP.

He added that all those involved in the project should be investigated.

“We can no longer expect the Ombudsman and the Senate to dwell on this issue as both have unfinished businesses to mind. It is now up to the people to investigate and demand for justice,” Roque said. - With Ashzel Hachero

by: JP LOPEZ

source: http://www.malaya.com.ph/apr05/news4.htm

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