Sen. Lacson fires up Senate probe into ‘swine scam’

April 8, 2008

The Senate is set to delve into the alleged P5-billion “swine scam” involving the government-owned Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. (Quedancor) after opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson yesterday filed a resolution in the upper chamber seeking the conduct of a full-scale inquiry into the issue.

Lacson filed Senate Resolution 340 which seeks to establish the status of the funds that went to the program amid suspicions that they ended up in the adminis-tration’s campaign kitty in the presidential elections in 2004, similar to that of the P3-billion fertilizer scam involving former Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-joc” Bolante.

Lawyer and University of the Philippines Prof. Harry Roque earlier had claimed that Quedancor had been engaging in quasi-banking activities while not possessing a license from the Monetary Board.

“It seems that multibillion-peso anomalies are becoming the hallmark of this administration to the detriment of our people…Like the fertilizer scam, there are allegations that the funds for the swine program were diverted to the 2004 campaign fund of the administration to ensure the reelection bid of President Arroyo,” Lacson said

in his resolution.

He said the “scam” also brought “memories” of the P1.3-billion textbook scam, where the bidding process was “tailor-fit” for a select group of favored bidders with interlocking sets of officers.

The controversy began when in its 2005 Annual Report, the Commission on Audit (CoA) found that P755.62 million in Quedancor’s outstanding loan balance and P663.77 million in receivables was doubtful.

The CoA findings also said the procurement of input supplies for Quedancor’s swine program amounting to P1.67 billion during the year was not in accordance with government procurement procedures, and the high cost of credit was not beneficial to farmer beneficiaries.

Lacson said he wondered why the Quedancor management did not provide equal opportunity to contractors or suppliers as it seemed to have allowed for the program to be monopolized by a group of input suppliers.

Citing records of the CoA, the senator said a certain chief executive officer and managing director of Metro Livestock Inc. was found to also be a member of the board of directors of the Birks Agri-Livestock Corp. and a partner of the New Gold Agri-Vet Co.

The person’s name and that of a director of Birks Corp. also appear as former directors of the Silver Rock Resources Corp. (SRC), he added.

Yet as of Dec. 31, 2005, he said Quedancor was found to have procured some P1.67 billion worth of input supplies under the swine program. Of this amount, Birks, SRC and Metro Livestock got the biggest share of 35 percent, 29 percent and 23 percent, respectively.

Including the New Gold Rock, the four Input Suppliers acquired 87.53 percent or P1.46 billion of the total procurements, Lacson noted.

He said tabulation from the regional office also showed that procurement was concentrated from the three Input Suppliers in the following regions: Silver Stock in Regions I and III; Birks in Regions 6, 7 and 8 and Metro Livestock in Regions 4, 6 and the National Capital Region.

Lacson, hoever, refused to name names.

Quedancor launched a swine program in 2003 to assist farmers venturing into hog-raising. Some P5 billion in funds went to the project, with P3 billion coming from the state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines and P2 billion from the private Equitable-PCI Bank, and government bonds issued as collateral.

by Angie M. Rosales

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