PNoy abolishes govt firms linked to scam involving senators’ pork

President Benigno Aquino III has abolished three government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) linked to the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam.

All of the companies had been found to be conduits for pork funds of the senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, and Bong Revilla, who all face plunder charges.

The GOCCs ordered to cease operations were the Philippine Forest Corporation, ZNAC Rubber Estate (ZREC), and the National Agri-Business Corporation (NABCOR), which supposedly served as conduits in the funneling of public money to bogus foundations.

An earlier report by GMA News Online noted that Zamboanga del Norte-based ZREC received a whopping P282 million in PDAF allocations from 2007 to 2009. Among the senators who allegedly put their PDAF in the GOCCs were Senators Estrada and Senate Minority Leader Enrile.

Napoles, Estrada, Enrile and Senator Bong Revilla were among those named respondents in a plunder complaint filed with the Office of the Ombudsman in connection to the pork barrel scam.

As for the case of NABCOR, based on the Commission on Audit’s report on the PDAF, as much as P1.2 billion from Estrada, Enrile and Revilla’s pork barrel were transferred to it from 2007 to 2009.

Not financially viable

A statement posted on the government's website said Aquino approved the abolition last month following the recommendation of the Governance Commission for GOCCs, the body mandated to regulate GOCCs.

The GCG, in its recommendation, said these corporations “were no longer performing the purpose for which they were created, had negligible social impact and were not financially viable.”

The commission also noted that it is studying the abolition of more non-performing GOCCs that failed to follow their mandate.

PFC, ZREC and NABCOR were identified as conduits of lawmakers in the multi-billion-peso pork barrel scam that was exposed last year. The lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), commonly called pork barrel, was funneled to GOCCs then to bogus non-government organizations.

These ghost projects handled by fake NGOs were purportedly worth P10 billion in a scam that lasted a decade before being exposed. At the center of the scandal was businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged NGO operator.

Winding down of operations, separation pay

According to the statement, after the presidential clearance to abolish the GOCCs, there will be a technical working group to pave the way for the winding down of operations, disposition of assets, liabilities, closing of book accounts, and the transfer of assets and functions.

“Affected employees are given separation pay pursuant to civil service rules and regulations, unless they are found to have participated in graft and/or corrupt acts in which case the separation package may be withheld pending the investigation and/or prosecution,” it noted. — Rouchelle Dinglasan/KBK/HS, GMA News