‘FM funds not used in 2004 elections’

A ranking official of the Department of Land Reform (DLR) denied yesterday allegations that funds sourced from the Marcos ill-gotten wealth were diverted to finance the campaign of President Arroyo in the May 10, 2004 elections.

DLR Undersecretary for Finance, Management and Administration Jeffrey Galan said the allegations of misappropriation are baseless and malicious, claiming records from the Department of Agriculture (DA) showed otherwise.

Galan explained the DLR had released funds from the Marcos ill-gotten wealth for the implementation of the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) rice program and various irrigation projects under the DA.

He said the release of the funds occurred after the May elections.

Galan said the DLR, through the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) executive committee, passed a resolution that authorized the release of a P544 million allocation for hybrid seed production and other farm projects for the last crop season in November 2004 until April 2005.

"About P60 million was transferred to the regional offices of DA on May 3, 2004 to grant the requests of various local government units (LGUs) for the adoption of the GMA rice program," Galan said.

He said a portion of the budget went to the construction of many farm-to-market roads to complement the GMA rice program.

"The regional offices were not able to immediately disburse the funds to (the) LGUs since (the) farmer-beneficiaries had not been identified," Galan said.

He maintained the funds reached the local government units several months after the election period.

He said actual training of the farmers under the program began in August 2004, while the seed production for the dry cropping season was done in May until October last year.

Records showed the Philippine Rice Institute received P394 million on July 29, 2004 for the seed distribution, or 48 days after the DLR funds were transferred to the DA on May 11, 2004, a day after the elections.

Actual distribution and planting of the seeds was carried out from November 2004 to April 2005.

"There was no way that the funds disbursed to the regional offices were used for election purposes considering the timing of the fund releases to the field offices and commencement of activities to implement the GMA rice program," Galan said.

He said the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), one of the implementing agencies of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), received P541 million for the implementation of various irrigation projects.

Galan stressed the DLR, formerly the Department of Agrarian Reform, has never ceased in providing CARP beneficiaries the necessary support services since the land reform program was implemented in 1988.

About P500 million went to the Special Allotment Release Order for capital outlay, while the rest was allocated for operational support, such as personal services, maintenance and other operating expenses.

Galan showed records from the NIA-CARP component project management office that indicated many ongoing irrigation projects in agrarian reform communities were still awaiting completion for this year.

"It is a big mistake to speculate that the entire fund was released before or during the elections. There was no such case," Galan said.

Galan pointed out that the Department of Budget and Management had released P120 million worth of notices of cash allocation to NIA in two tranches.

He said the initial fund was released in August 2004 after the irrigation projects of NIA were subjected to public bidding from May 2004 up to July 2005.

"NIA was always a close partner of DLR, way back in the 1980s," Galan said.

He said 69,629 farmers became beneficiaries of the recent irrigation projects of NIA through the CARP in a 104,138-hectare agricultural land.

At lease 415 irrigation projects have been completed with 72 others under completion, Galan said.

Galan said the total cost of these projects is pegged at P5.358 billion.