Monday, January 29, 2007 Indon to set up trading center for RP products By Joy Romares-Sevilla
A BUSINESS chamber in Indonesia will establish a trading center that exhibits solid Philippine-made products this year.
This was bared by Antonio Santos, former president of the Mindanao Business Council (MinBC), who also chairs the council's special projects for this year.
"We were told na nand'yan na ang pera, hopefully it will be operating at the end of this year," Santos told Sun.Star.
However, when asked how much budget was allotted for the setting up of the center, Santos claimed that he has no idea.
He said with the establishment of the center, all Philippine products, not only agricultural products, will be recognized in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, Santos revealed MinBC has a total of P36 million worth of projects this year. He said a project head of an American firm met him last week to discuss about new project plans for Mindanao.
Santos, on the other hand, claimed that MinBC has already given the P2.081 million worth of fertilizers to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front for the cardava project in Cotabato City through the financing of Quedancor.
It was earlier reported that Santos was tagged by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (PCCII) Mindanao in the P2.081 million scam last year.
PCCII vice president Estrelita Juliano Tamano asserted that the amount, received from Quedancor, was disbursed by MinBC chair Romeo Serra on February 3 last year and was "anomalously" transferred to his and to Santos's personal accounts.
However, Santos claimed that the amount was indeed transferred to their account since Quedancor could not release fertilizers directly to banana planters.
"Sabi ng Quedancor, kami na ang bahalang bumili and we did. The amount was liquidated and we have complete documents for that," Santos said showing the documents to Sun.Star.
