MARCH 26, 2012 DATE

NR # 2690B
REF. NO.

House to probe AMA Group Holdings on the $50-M farm deal

A lawmaker has called for a congressional inquiry into the $50 million joint venture deal between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the AMA Group Holdings to operate a 10,000-hectare agricultural farm in Mindanao. Rep. Rafael Mariano (Party-list, Anak-Pawis) expressed fear that the project would displace thousands of farmers in Mindanao. In House Resolution 2159, Mariano urged the House Committees on Agriculture and Food and Good Government to conduct an inquiry to determine if the project will bring prosperity to the Mindanao people. Mariano said the AMA Group Holdings entered a joint venture with Bahrains Hassan Group in 2010, called RP Harvest, to cultivate bananas, rice and other crops on 10,000 hectares of land in Davao del Norte in Mindanao. AMA Group Holdings is owned by the family of Amable Aguiluz V, who serves as the countrys special envoy to Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC). Mariano said the deal may be violative of Republic Act 3019, which provides that it is unlawful for any person having family or close personal relation with any public official to capitalize or exploit or take advantage of such family or close personal relation by directly or indirectly requesting or receiving any present, gift or material or pecuniary advantage from any other person having some business, transaction, application, request or contract with the government, in which such public official has to intervene. It is not only our people that are at stake but also our national patrimony, Mariano said. Mariano said the land-lease deals, which will allow foreign countries to use vast tracts of land in the country, will further intensify landlessness, poverty and hunger in the countryside. It is also foreseen that joint ventures of this kind will fuel agrarian unrest and face intense resistance from farmers, Mariano said. Mariano said the deal was signed in Bahrain last January 2012 by Nadir and Ibrahim Sons of Hassan Group and the AMA Group Holdings as an agriculture investment expansion project to ensure food security and promote the role of private companies in the agribusiness sector. However, Mariano said AMA Group Holdings is claiming that the project will not push through because the land is not suitable for such agricultural products. (30) sb