Undermining the industry

After years of relative calmness of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in the Philippines, its two most high profile leaders (namely, Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, who happens to be the incoming CBCP president), are suddenly voicing out disgust over the pork barrel scandal featuring the well-treated prisoner ma’am Janet Lim-Napoles.

At the same time, the Archbishop of Caceres, Rolando Tria Tirona, issued a pastoral letter that was read in Catholic churches across Camarines Sur, stressing the need for the “lawful conviction of the guilty.”

The long-time representative of Camarines Sur was none other than former Deputy Speaker Arnulfo Fuentabella, whose position in the House of Representatives was taken over by his son, Rep. William Fuentabella.

In its 462-page special audit report for 2007 to 2009, the Commission on Audit questioned some P197 million in PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) (PDAF) and VILP (Various Infrastructure including Local Projects) which were all released during the time of the elder Fuentabella in Congress.

Officials of the Department of Agriculture subsequently backed up the COA claim.

According to the COA report, the former deputy speaker endorsed some the P19 million worth of projects in the PDAF, all going to the Partido District Development Cooperative Inc. (PDDCI), which should have been coursed through the Technology Resource Center (TRC).

The COA found out that the PDDCI had yet to liquidate about P10 million of the P19-million pork outlay from Fuentabela.

Yet the PDDCI, the main beneficiary of Fuentebella’s pork, which happened to be based in a small barangay in a remote town called Tigaon, was not even registered with the SEC.

The COA audit team also discovered that the supposed NGO did not even have records at the Business Permit and Licensing Office (BPLO) of the municipal hall in Tigaon.

Incidentally, another Fuentebella was the mayor of Tigaon.

Anyway, the House appropriations committee invited Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala to its hearing on the 2014 budget of the Aquino (Part II) administration. Alcala revealed that Fuentebella was one of six lawmakers who had channeled some P83 million of their PDAF to the Kaupdanan para sa Mangunguma Foundation (KPMI), one of the 10 fake NGOs of Napoles.

Moreover, the COA report said that, during his time as congressman of Camarines Sur, Fuentabella received more allocation, amounting to at least P120 million, under the other kind of pork called VILP for the so-called “hard” projects.

During his time, Fuentebella also received funding from the cute administration of Gloriaetta for an outfit called Partido Development Administration (PDA), chaired then by another Fuentebella offspring.

Another COA audit report for 2009 revealed that the PDA incurred heavy losses in 2008 and 2009, amounting to some P100 million.

Its debts had reached P1 billion and was subsequently assumed by the government.

That was where your taxes went!

* * *

Definitely there is gold, estimated at some 9.4 million ounces, and copper, estimated at about 5 billion pounds, in the rich hills of Compostela Valley in Pantukan, the one called King King mining project.

The full potential of exploration and production of the mines there, however, has been stalled because of the competing claims by two feuding groups of stockholders in Nationwide Development Corp.

Of late, their feud turned nasty. According to reports, armed personnel of the Jose Ricafort group of stockholders recently attacked the tenement building in the mining compound guarded by the security force hired by the Conrado Calalang group of stockholders.

The Calalang security force was able to repulse the attack and killed one of the intruders in a long-drawn gun battle, while one of its own men was seriously wounded.

The apparent marauders withdrew when the Pantukan police finally arrived early the following day.

Thus, the Calalang group reported it was still in full control of the site, since the Pantukan police had to follow a court order, issued by the Court of Appeals in February, upholding the validity of the majority control of the Calalang group.

A subsequent unanimous decision of the Supreme Court subsequently dismissed the petition of the Ricafort group to reverse the CA ruling.

And so the police assigned a full detachment at the site, complemented by a small unit of the military, apparently to forestall any more trouble in the mine site.

The Calalang group, which now controls the Nadecor board, said the armed attack at the mine site would only serve to undermine the mining industry, perhaps even scaring away foreign investors that the Aquino (Part II) administration wanted to attract into the country.

As background, the Ricafort group has claimed to be Nadecor’s majority stockholders, although the group owned only 25 percent of Nadecor shares, while the Calalang crowd had more than 67 percent, following the infusion of some $43 million by the St. Agustine Copper and Gold, which was listed at the Toronto Stock Exchange.

St. Agustine is owned partly by a company called Queensberry, which in turn was the investment company of former Senator Manuel Villar.

Estimates by Nadecor showed that the total cost to operate the King King mine project now stands at about $2 billion.

Thus, to develop the mining claim without a major partner like the Canada-based St. Agustine mining group might be quite difficult. For instance, how would the Ricafort group raise $2 billion.

In the meantime, Ricafort might have overlooked that his actions are undermining not only the value of his shares in the company but also the entire mining industry and, thus, the economy.

Look, boss, guns and goons here, there and everywhere.