Call Agawin to Senate–Escudero

Assistant Agriculture Secretary Ophelia Agawin INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The agriculture official who allegedly lobbied for the release of pork barrel funds to spurious foundations should also testify in the Senate, Sen. Francis Escudero said on Saturday.

Escudero said the blue ribbon committee should invite Assistant Secretary Ophelia Agawin so she could answer the charges leveled against her by two former officials of the National Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor).

If at all, he said, Agawin should be confronted by Rhodora Mendoza and Vicente Cacal, former president for finance and general services chief of Nabcor, respectively.

“It’s only right that they face each other so they can tell what they know,” Escudero said in an interview on dwIZ radio.

In their affidavits with the Ombudsman, Mendoza and Cacal accused Agawin of badgering them to release some P323 million in Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) or pork barrel to three foundations set up by Janet Lim-Napoles.

The three foundations were selected by Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr. to implement their projects between 2007 and 2009.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala has issued a memorandum to Agawin telling her to comment on the Nabcor officials’ allegations.

Influential status

Blue ribbon committee chair Sen. Teofisto Guingona III agreed with the proposal of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago to invite Mendoza and Cacal to the hearing.

Escudero questioned what appeared to be Agawin’s “influential” status in the Department of Agriculture, where she was promoted even after she was implicated in the fertilizer fund scam during the Arroyo administration.

“Instead of being demoted, she was promoted,” Escudero said. “She is powerful, she has connections. These are the things that she should shed light on.”

Agawin went on leave in October last year following allegations by a whistle-blower that her department was used as a conduit for the transfer of funds from the PDAF to Napoles’ foundations.

Invite Yap, too

Escudero said the committee could invite Bohol Rep. Arthur Yap but the latter could refuse in view of “interparliamentary courtesy.”

Mendoza had said that a broadcast journalist was paid P2 million by Nabcor president Alan Javellana to stop criticisms of the corporation on the instruction of Yap, then the agriculture secretary.

“We can invite him, but he has a right to refuse this and a right to reply to the charges in the House instead of the Senate,” Escudero said.

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