Filtered By: Money
Money

Senate urged to review agriculture budget


MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Senate was urged to review the budget of the Department of Agriculture (DA) amid the current investigation of former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante regarding the alleged fertilizer funds scam. The Senate should take a closer look at allotments for fertilizer and seeds subsidies, the Rice Watch and Action Network (R1) said in a statement. The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee should conduct closer scrutiny on the inherent flaws of the agriculture department’s regulatory and monitoring capacity to implement its programs, the group added. The said flaws “cause grave doubts on the department’s absorptive capacity to manage budget increase for rice self-sufficiency program or FIELDS," the group said. “Secretary Arthur Yap should also be held for questioning in the current investigation as the spirit of ‘Joc-joc’ has not left the agency and continues to haunt the farmers and ransack the taxpayers of their hard-earned money," said Jessica Reyes-Cantos, R1 lead convenor. Irregularities committed in 2004 continued in the succeeding years especially after the 2007 Commission on Audit report discovered fake signatures on the list of beneficiaries of the P218.7-million worth of hybrid rice seeds, certified seeds, farm inputs and fertilizers support to farmers. “The agency needs to assure the farmers that the P7B allocation for Ginintuang Masagana Ani (GMA) Program that includes funding of P1.3B for fertilizers and P3.8B for seeds subsidies will not be squandered and will reach the intended farmers beneficiaries," Cantos said. R1 has proposed to the Senate the scrapping of hybrid rice seeds subsidies in the 2009 budget to pave the way for training and extension of farmers on sustainable and organic agriculture and provide greater focus on organic fertilizer production at the farm level rather than buying fertilizers from private dealers. The group's proposal that is included in the Alternative Budget Initiative of Social Watch Philippines that was submitted to the House of Representatives and the Senate also proposed an additional budget of up to P200M for the agency's regulatory and monitoring mechanisms across the layers of the DA bureaucracy. Cantos said Secretary Yap should prove that the enhanced agriculture budget in 2009 will not give the corrupt officials of DA a better opportunity for plunder. "The agriculture department needs to completely win the trust and confidence of the farmers and the taxpayers by showing that heads do roll down to the bars of justice and not only given the reprieve of running out of the country or going on medical leave," said Cantos. In 2006, the Senate Agriculture Committee recommended that charges be filed against Agriculture Assistant Secretary Jose Felix Montes in connection with alleged fertilizer fund scam in 2004. He resigned in April last year due to poor health conditions. "We are alarmed that the government continues to beef up the national seeds support program that is a very ripe source of plunder, without giving due consideration to other more important investments, such as irrigation, post-harvest facilities, credit support to farmers and crop insurance system," explained Cantos. In a study done in 2004 by Flordeliza H. Bordey of the Philippine Rice Research Institute, 109 percent self-sufficiency rate can be achieved in 2009 if the government will invest in P59 B worth of irrigation, post-harvest facilities and support to increase yield. - GMANews.TV
LOADING CONTENT