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THE Food
Terminal Inc. (FTI) was a concept born decades ago of a
desire of the government to lower the prices of food in
the metropolis by providing a common bagsakan
area with concessional fees, cold storage for
agricultural products and food processing.
This
subsidiary of the National Food Authority has long been
under the radar, and now that prices of all commodities
are rising, has got back attention and is now reported
to be bankrupt due to mismanagement.
Senate
Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. thus prodded Sen.
Richard Gordon’s Committee on Government Corporations
and Public Enterprises to conduct an inquiry, in aid of
legislation, into the alleged mismanagement of the FTI.
In a
statement over the weekend, Pimentel cited the need to
open FTI’s book of accounts with reports of massive
graft. “It is necessary to look into these serious
allegations against the management of FTI and to
immediately undertake corrective measures to prevent the
problem from getting out of hand and to protect the
interests of the government and the taxpayers.”
Pimentel
sought the inquiry in the wake of the Arroyo
administration’s plan to include in its “fire sale” of
state assets the FTI’s valuable 120-hectare
agro-industrial complex in Taguig City to cut losses and
generate additional revenues for the government, and as
some critics put it, some other pockets.
Pimentel
said the value of the huge complex in its prime location
at the entrance to Metro Manila from the productive
Southern Tagalog and Bicol regions was estimated at P15
billion.
The FTI,
the senator noted, has remained a strategic business hub
with more than 300 small- and medium-scale companies
operating there on lease contracts, that the complex has
huge bank accounts.
He
recalled the FTI was created through a presidential
decree by the late President Ferdinand Marcos on March
27, 1974. Its forerunner was the Greater Manila Terminal
Food Market established in 1968. And on March 1, 2004,
President Arroyo issued Proclamation 626 designating
parts of the FTI complex—with an aggregate area of
243,961 square meters—as a special economic zone.
Pimentel
proposed that the Gordon committee require the
Commission on Audit to “conduct a performance audit
report on the FTI to verify the real financial condition
of the state firm.” |
