Zubiri bares unusual agri fund release

By Christian V. Esguerra
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:26:00 09/30/2010

Filed Under: Agriculture, Infrastructure

MANILA, Philippines?Senators yesterday uncovered what one of them described as an unusual fund release similar to the P728-million fertilizer fund scam in the 2004 elections, but this time the amount involved billions of pesos.

The Department of Agriculture released a total of P4.9 billion supposedly for the construction of farm-to-market roads (FMR) and other infrastructure projects nationwide, less than two months before the May 2010 elections.

Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri asked DA officials to produce a ?detailed accounting? of all of the department?s infrastructure projects in the last three years.

Citing a Commission on Audit report, he said FMR projects worth P5.2 billion were not ?efficiently and effectively implemented.?

Sen. Franklin Drilon, finance committee chair, said the Senate would look into the disbursements, along with the P1.2 billion also released by the Arroyo administration for dredging projects shortly before the election period this year.

?There appears to be a trend on these releases,? he told reporters. ?There are unusually large releases in this crucial election period.?

Zubiri said officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways, who were under scrutiny for the P1.2-billion dredging projects, would ?look like angels compared to members of the DA.?

Drilon said the P4.9-billion ?cascaded? by the DA to regional field units (RFUs) appeared to be ?election-related like the fertilizer scam (where) the funds were released to the RFUs.?

The senator expressed surprise that the DA was able to release that big an amount in just two occasions.

Citing records from the department, he said a total of P3.65 billion was released last Feb. 22, while another P1.25 billion was made available on March 10. The first release was covered by Special Allotment Release Order No. 10-0000432, while the second was under SARO No. E-10-001302.

Drilon said the money was made available from former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?s rice program for this year.

The senator also noted ?very uneven distributions? of the amount. He cited the case of Western Visayas, ?a rice-producing region,? which got only P288 million compared with the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which received a bigger allocation of P436 million.