Agri officials confident they will beat rap

Department of Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The chief of the National Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor) on Monday expressed confidence that the plunder charge filed against him and Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala “(would) eventually be dismissed.”

Citing data from the Commission on Audit, lawyer Argee Guevarra filed a complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman in January, accusing Alcala and Nabcor president Honesto Baniqued of pocketing some P1 billion of the agency’s funds.

“No act of plunder was ever committed during my watch,” said Baniqued in an interview, adding that Guevarra’s complaint was based on conclusions that had no support in direct evidence and were mere conjecture.

“The (numbers cited) were merely bits and pieces (of data) lifted from the COA’s 2012 annual audit report (on) Nabcor, without taking into consideration the entirety of the report nor even the complete portions (of the report that was quoted in the complaint),” Baniqued said.

The Nabcor official said counter-charges would be filed to prevent the filing of more baseless complaints.

“I will not allow this plunder complaint to erode the work I have done, my reputation to be further besmirched, nor remain silent and be used by groups who are politically motivated in moving against the (agriculture) secretary,” he added.

“I joined the government three years ago, having been invited from the private sector to help the current administration in advancing a transparent and responsive government, especially in my field of expertise, the agribusiness sector,” Baniqued said.

Guevarra had filed two previous plunder complaints against Alcala.

In December, he lodged a plunder complaint against the agriculture chief and National Food Authority Administrator Orlan Calayag in connection with the importation of 205,700 metric tons of milled rice that the lawyer said had been overpriced by P457.2 million.