What Went Before: Malacañang allies alleged involvement in pork scam

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala. FILE PHOTO

In August last year, President Benigno Aquino III acknowledged flaws in the Department of Agriculture’s release of P89.2 million from the pork barrel of eight congressmen to an alleged dummy agency and said saying sorry was not enough.

He was reacting for the first time to allegations that P10 billion in Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of lawmakers had been channeled to ghost projects of bogus nongovernment organizations (NGOs) allegedly controlled by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles over the past decade.

Mr. Aquino also said that the allegations linking Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala to the release of P89.2 million to a bogus NGO would be part of the inquiry by the National Bureau of Investigation into the alleged Napoles racket.

In October, the peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) filed a plunder complaint in the Office of the Ombudsman against the President and several others including Napoles, over the misuse of the PDAF.

Also named in the complaint were Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and his undersecretary Mario Relampagos and Alcala, his undersecretary Antonio Fleta, assistant secretaries Salvador Salacup and Ophelia Agawin, Director Irene D.T. Alogoc and executive assistant Arnulfo Mañalac.

In November, the NBI filed malversation charges against former Customs Commissioner Rozzano Rufino Biazon and 27 others, including Zenaida Cruz-Ducut, the chair of the Energy Regulatory Commission, along with Napoles and several former members of the House of Representatives.

Biazon, a member of the ruling Liberal Party, resigned after being named a respondent in the  malversation complaint involving the use of his pork barrel fund when he was a Muntinlupa City representative.

In January this year, the KMP filed another plunder complaint against Mr. Aquino, Abad, Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio delos Reyes and several others, in connection with the alleged diversion of funds from the Malampaya natural gas project to programs not related to energy.

The President has shrugged off the plunder cases filed against him and his Cabinet secretaries, saying they never benefited from the pork barrel scam and the alleged misuse of the Malampaya Fund.

Director General Joel Villanueva of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, a close friend of Mr. Aquino, has also been linked to the pork barrel scam.

In February, Dennis Cunanan, head of the Technology Resource Center, alleged that Villanueva was among those who had channeled their pork barrel through the agency en route to Napoles’ NGOs.

At least 19 administration allies are among 83 lawmakers accused of coursing their pork barrel allocations through the National Agribusiness Corp., allegedly with instructions to tap questionable foundations to implement the projects.

Inquirer Research

Sources: Inquirer Archives

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