Party-list lawmaker defends agri loan granted to multi-purpose coop

Representative Nicanor Briones. www.congress.gov.ph

MANILA, Philippines—Representative Nicanor Briones of the Agricultural Sector Alliance of the Philippines (AGAP) party-list group said on Monday that the Limcoma Multi-Purpose Cooperative obtained a P28.87-million loan in 2005 from the Agriculture Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, when he was not yet a congressman.

Speaking from the United States, Briones said he served as president of the Limcoma Batangas Prime Inc. from 2005 up to the early part of 2007. He resigned and ran for a seat in Congress in 2007.

Acef loans granted to agribusinesses whose owners had political connections and which had not been paid for after several years are now the subject of intense scrutiny by the Aquino government.

According to Briones, Limcoma is owned by a cooperative which elects its president every year. This year’s president is Lito Lingao. It has 7,000 hog raisers as members, mainly from Region 4 (Southern Tagalog) although there are now members from Northern Luzon.

Briones told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that the loan was secured to finance the balance of the P80-million cost of the building of an “AAA-class” meat processing plant with a maximum capacity of 15 tons a day.

He said the plant, located on a three-hectare lot in Batangas, had a building and equipment imported from the United States and Germany.

“I did not obtain it for myself, it was for the cooperative because Limcoma is a cooperative. The loan is legitimate. The plant is there, you can always visit it,” he said.

He doubted whether the cooperative defaulted on its payments, saying he learned that it applied for deferred payments from the original payment terms of four years term to 10 years.

He said it took a while before the plant materialized because of the huge cost incurred for its completion.

“I know they’re paying at least P100,000 a month or maybe the payments were delayed. Definitely, hindi iyan tumatakbo (they’re not running away from their loan),” Briones said.

Briones, likewise, admitted that his son, John Paul, also received P14.99 million for his Goodwill Poultry Farm in Batangas, but insisted that his son has been paying his loan.

Briones stressed that loans from Acef, which has been derived from tariff on the importation of pork and chicken, have been taken out without interest and collateral by small farmers, particularly those from the hog sector which has been directly affected by the importation.

The congressman said he was against the giving of Acef as grants to local government units for the construction of farm-to-market roads similar to the ones given to Aurora Governor Bellaflor Angara-Castillo because they were not directly affected by the meat importation.