3 senators facing plunder charges poured millions through little-known ZREC

Senator Jinggoy Estrada, who gave an impassioned speech last week about the controversial pork barrel scam, may soon have to explain why a whopping P184 million from his discretionary funds went to a small government corporation based in a remote town in Zamboanga del Norte.
 
Estrada tops the list of current and former lawmakers that gave funds to two NGOs linked to alleged pork scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles, through the Zamboanga del Norte Agricultural College Rubber Estate Corporation (ZREC), according to the special audit report of the Commission on Audit (COA) released last month.
 
A total of P282 million from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocation of Estrada and Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon Revilla Jr. as well as former APEC party-list Rep. Edgar Valdez and former Buhay party-list Rep. Rene Velarde went to ZREC from 2007 to 2009, the COA report said.
 

 
All three senators have been charged with plunder at the Ombudsman along with Valdez and Napoles, for allegedly getting kickbacks from anomalous transactions involving government funds. They have denied the charges and said they are ready to defend themselves in court.

READ: Plunder raps filed vs. Napoles, three senators in pork scam

Registered in 1984 as a rubber production and marketing firm, ZREC runs a 1,000-hectare plantation and supports farm owners that supply its plant in the sixth-class municipality of Tampilisan, Zamboanga del Norte. According to the COA report, the company has its main office in Pasig City.
 
The small company gained prominence recently when COA named it as one of two government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCC), along with the National Agribusiness Corporation, under the Department of Agriculture (DA) that received the highest amounts of pork barrel funds from lawmakers, which were allegedly misused.
 
READ: Enrile, Estrada, and Revilla were top sources of NABCOR's pork funds

President Aquino has ordered the abolition of ZREC, calling it an “instrument of corruption” because of the numerous anomalies cited in the COA report.
 
Questionable transactions
 
According to COA, many of the projects funded through ZREC went to questionable transactions with dubious non-government organizations (NGOs).
 
Notably, the transactions of ZREC did not involve rubber products, but farm implements like gardening tools, hand tractors, and fertilizers that were distributed during livelihood trainings, COA said.
 
The only rubber-related project the company implemented was the distribution of rubber tree seedlings. This is highly irregular because ZREC's main product is rubber while the provision of agricultural kits is secondary, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala told GMA News Online.
 
Some beneficiaries listed in the liquidation reports denied receiving any products, while a number of suppliers denied having made any transactions with the NGOs, the COA said.
 
In its separate report on GOCCs in 2012, the auditing agency said ZREC failed to address anomalies in pork barrel use that comprised about one-fourth of its recommendations. Among the irregularities are the purchase documents submitted by the Pangkabuhayan Foundation Inc. that did not match the receipts from suppliers, and failure to review the capability of the NGO to implement the projects.
 
The 2012 report also mentioned another questionable NGO dealing with ZREC that is not included in the special audit report – the Infinite Community Integrated Development Support Foundation, whose liquidation reports showed a discrepancy between the number of seedlings distributed and the number of beneficiaries, many of whom had similar signatures.
 
Lawmakers endorsed NGOs
 
At a Senate hearing, former ZREC president Salvador Salacup said lawmakers had endorsed the NGOs listed in the special audit report.
 
Revilla, Valdez, and Velarde even signed the documents for the fund transfers, while Enrile and Estrada had representatives, Salacup said.
 
One of the incorporators for an alleged questionable NGO, the Social Development Program for Farmers Foundation Inc. (SDPFFI), is Benhur Luy, the whistle-blower who pointed to Napoles as the mastermind behind the elaborate pork barrel scam.
 
Currently a DA Assistant Secretary, Salacup maintained that ZREC was not aware about the anomalous transactions of fake NGOs. “Sir, yes, naloko po,” he told a Senate panel when asked if his office was deceived by the NGOs.
 
Salacup, who is also facing plunder charges at the Ombudsman in connection with the alleged pork barrel scam, denied any knowledge that the NGOs were questionable, and said ZREC relied on the senators' endorsements.
 
DA Sec. Alcala also said his office did not know there were PDAF anomalies at ZREC until the COA report came out.
 
He added that DA had been eyeing the abolition of ZREC for failing to compete in the rubber industry, noting that its technologies are outdated.
 
“It has outlived its purpose,” Alcala said. – YA, GMA News