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FRAUD
and the lack of expertise of state-run Quedan and Rural
Credit Guarantee Corp. (Quedancor) to collect payments
under the multibillion-peso swine program led to the
current mess that the program is in, industry sources
said.
The
Quedancor SRT (self-reliant team) swine-financing
program, which was conceptualized in 2003, was meant to
encourage farmers to go into hog raising and existing
hog raisers to expand their production.
While
the money reached the intended recipients, one industry
source said Quedancor didn’t have the expertise to
administer funds and collect payments, even if it was
knowledgeable about financial matters.
“There
is confusion in the matter of collection. Quedancor did
not have clear guidelines about collecting payments,”
said the source.
Earlier,
another industry source told the BusinessMirror that
some of the recipients, who were not hog raisers or
farmers, used fraudulent documents to obtain loans and
used the money for purposes other than hog production.
Industry
sources said aside from these problems, recipients who
were not experienced in hog raising were allegedly
defrauded by input suppliers.
“Others
thought what were given them were mother hogs. That was
not the case because what they got were hogs meant for
slaughter,” said the source. This led some of the
recipients to default on payments because they suffered
losses.
As of
press time, Quedancor officials and input suppliers
could not be reached for comment.
Earlier,
the Department of Agriculture (DA) said in a press
statement that Quedancor had already formed a Swine
Program Task Force to validate the extent of the
irregularities; explore available options to mitigate
financial losses; study possible legal actions against
input suppliers and grower-borrowers believed involved
in defrauding the program; and initiate the collection
of repayments.
As for
former Quedancor president Nelson Buenaflor, the DA said
the Quedancor board had forced him to go on leave
starting May 22 last year to pave the way for a free and
equitable investigation into the Commission on Audit (COA)
report.
Effective the same date, Quedancor stopped accepting
applications for loans under the SRT swine-financing
program.
Earlier,
the COA revealed that P1.4 billion of the P2.5-billion
fund that Quedancor released for the swine program
remains unliquidated.
Meanwhile, lawyer Harry Roque from the Law Center of the
University of the Philippines said President Arroyo has
the responsibility to explain to the public, especially
the marginalized farmers, why she should not be held
liable to another corruption allegation surrounding the
multibillion-peso “swine scam” that was implemented by a
government-owned agency.
Roque
said Quedancor was attached to the Office of the
President in 2004 by virtue of Executive Order 322.
“Quedancor was originally with the Department of
Agriculture, but guess where it was transferred in 2004?
To the Office of the President. So the buck stops in the
President’s doorsteps,” Roque said.
Roque
was referring to EO 322 dated July 2004, which ordered
the transfer of Quedancor to the Office of the
President, the same year when Mrs. Arroyo’s presidential
victory against the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. was
marred with election fraud.
Arroyo’s
presidency was seriously challenged after agents of the
Intelligence Services of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines traded for money alleged tapes of wiretapped
conversations between Arroyo and former elections
commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, which controversy
later gained the moniker “Hello, Garci.”
The
“Hello, Garci” election scandal remains unsolved up to
this day, and has been surpassed by a series of
corruption allegations that continue to rock the Arroyo
presidency.
Aside
from allegations that the bulk of the government’s
swine-program funds could also have been used to fund
the administration’s election campaign in 2004, just
like what could have had happened to the P721 million
“fertilizer scam,” Roque said some individuals could
have also pocketed millions of pesos from the scam.
The
lawyer pointed out the public has the right to know to
which pocket went the P300 million in “arranger’s fee”
and at least P2 million in “attorney’s fee,” as shown by
a document she obtained from the Land Bank of the
Philippines (LBP).
“These
are highly questionable transactions considering that
the program was through loan from the LBP. Besides, such
fees were so unusual because the loan was between LBP, a
government-owned bank and Quedancor, a government-owned
and -controlled corporation,” Roque said.
“The
arranger’s fee reached P300 million. But, in the first
place, why have the arranger’s fee? That is only for
loans between private banks, where investment bankers or
arrangers package the loan,” Roque explained.
He
further explained that the so-called arranger’s fee was
paid to individuals who facilitated the loans for the
swine program.
Earlier,
Roque said certain parties could have skimmed up to P1.1
billion from the P2.25-billion swine program, citing
observations and questions from a 2005 COA report in
connection with the project.
He said
the COA report initially confirmed that some P700
million in unrecorded receivables in 2004, and a bigger
amount in unrecorded receivables—P1.1 billion—in 2005.
(With Zaff Somerin) |
