Classified?

It doesn’t compute. Why would the Department of Agriculture refuse to disclose the list of nongovernment organizations it had accredited to receive pork barrel funds? Inquirer reporters have long sought the list from department officials, but to no avail; according to Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala himself, the list is “classified.”

This is inexplicable behavior, and inexcusable.

In the first place, the public has the right to know how taxpayer money is spent. Asking for a copy of the list of DA-accredited NGOs is an exercise—and surely a basic, nonthreatening exercise—of that right. Since the purpose of the existence of the list is government accreditation, a public process in itself, sharing the information should be merely ministerial.

Secondly, the Aquino administration is committed to a single, overarching principle, of returning governance to the tuwid na daan, the straight path. Surely Alcala subscribes to this principle? Granting the simple request to provide a list of accredited NGOs allowed to receive Priority Development Assistance Fund monies would be exactly the kind of act of transparency and accountability demanded by the straight path.

Thirdly, in the last two months the so-called pork barrel scam has concentrated public attention on the phenomenon of bogus NGOs channeling PDAF allocations into bogus projects—and then into the very real pockets of scam operators and willing lawmakers. Alcala and his officials should know that growing public outrage makes the release of the list not only necessary but urgent.

The first two reasons tell us any list of accredited NGOs cannot be or should not have been considered classified; the third reason implies that, if the DA had indeed made the mistake of deeming the information classified, the scandal over the pork barrel scam should have driven the department to correct its original mistake.

Now we understand why. A copy of the list of accredited NGOs obtained by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas shows that, as of Aug. 28, 2013 (about six weeks after this newspaper broke the first stories on businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the pork barrel scam), three of the numerous NGOs associated with Napoles remained on the list.

The three organizations were among those identified in the Commission on Audit’s special audit report for the period 2007 to 2009 as having used PDAF monies in questionable or dubious transactions. Over P500 million was channeled through the Kabuhayan at Kalusugan Alay sa Masa Foundation Inc. or KKAMFI; over P100 million was coursed through the Gabay at Pag-Asa ng Masa Foundation  Inc. or GPMFI and over P80 million through the Kaupdanan Para sa mga Mangunguma Foundation Inc. or KPMFI.

At least four other suspect NGOs, not associated with Napoles, were also on the list. According to the KMP, however, the NGO that stood out was an organization identified, not with Napoles, but with a close collaborator of Alcala’s.

KMP secretary general Antonio Flores said Isa Akong Magsasaka Foundation Inc. was run by someone who once served as Alcala’s administrator in one project.

“The existence of fake NGOs on the DA’s list clearly shows that Alcala maintained the corrupt structure inside the [department],” Flores said. “It is high-time to purge the DA [of] bogus NGOs and hold Alcala and his gang accountable for plunder. Alcala and his gang [should] step down, submit to an independent investigation, and be (held) accountable for plunder.”

We support the call for an independent investigation.

Alcala and the department official in charge of accreditation, Undersecretary Antonio Fleta, have a lot of explaining to do. To begin with, they need to answer why, despite the controversy surrounding Napoles and the release of the special COA report, they continued to retain the three Napoles NGOs on the list. As it is, the continuing revelations of massive corruption through the abuse of the pork barrel process make the public wonder whether, under Alcala’s watch, and almost a decade after the infamous fertilizer scam, the Department of Agriculture continues to be vulnerable to organized thievery.