Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Tuesday, March 16, said Secretary William Dar has no business being the chief of the Department of Agriculture (DA) if he is unaware of the kickback scheme in the importation of pork.

“He (Dar) has no business being of being DA secretary if he is not aware (of the scheme),” Sotto said when sought to comment if he believes the DA chief knows about the so-called “tongpats” scheme which Sen. Panfilo Lacson bared on Monday.

Lacson is pushing for a Senate probe into the alleged kickback scheme at the DA perpetrated by a syndicate within the agency that stands to gain billions of pesos from the DA’s recommendation to lower tariff rates on imported pork products due to the severe impact of the African Swine Fever (ASF) on the local swine industry.

According to Lacson, the anomalies amount to a triple whammy that threatens to kill the country’s local hog industry while raising health concerns and costing the government foregone revenues.

“We should unmask who is/are behind this scheme no matter how powerful and influential he may be with this administration,” Lacson said in a statement.

“I want to see even a whiff of enthusiasm from the President to order the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) and other concerned agencies to investigate, not to mention heed the call of the Senate to disapprove the DA's recommendation to reduce the tariff and increase the volume of pork importation. Let's see," Lacson said.

He said he has already talked to Sotto to allow the Senate to look into it “so we can get the documents we need.” So far, he said, they have received documents from the DA and Bureau of Customs (BoC).

He also agreed with Sotto saying Dar should know or at least have heard of the “tongpats” scheme within his department, particularly in the minimum access volume (MAV) management committee headed by acting Undersecretary William Medrano and composed of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) and the National Meat Inspection (Service) NMIS) and the existing “SOPs” in the allocation of quota to favored importers and the issuance of the Phyto-Sanitary Import Clearance (PSIC).

“This practice has been going on for several years now. For example, between June and October 2018, imported pork from banned countries due to the ASF like Belgium, Hungary, Germany and China flooded the local market which prompted the issuance of a memorandum order by then DA Secretary Emmanuel Piñol,” Lacson said.

“Triple whammy ang tama sa atin ng ma-anomalyang praktis na ito. Bukod sa pinapatay ang lokal na industrya ng hog raising, may health concerns at issue ng forgone revenues pa (This anomalous practice is a triple whammy to us. Besides killing the local hog raising industry, there are also health concerns and issues of foregone revenues),” he added.