‘COA report on Marcos funds another scam’

The report by the Commission on Audit (COA) on the alleged use of P100 million in recovered Marcos wealth for the fertilizer program of the Department of Agriculture (DA) is "another scam of grand scale" that needs to be explained anew by the government, Senate President Franklin Drilon declared yesterday.

Drilon pointed out the P100 million represents the amount transferred from the agrarian reform fund of the Department of Agrarian Reform to the DA for the purchase of fertilizers.

The purchase was made under the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) program just before the May 2004 elections.

It is also part of the total P544 million Marcos funds released by the DAR for the GMA program, he said.

Drilon explained the P100 million in recovered wealth was among the highlights of the COA’s preliminary report on the alleged misuse of the fertilizer fund.

The figure represents the money disbursed to the Regional Field Units of the DA, the local government units and the non-government organizations for the purchase of fertilizer, he said.

It was revealed that there was overpricing of more than P42 million in the purchase of fertilizer which was sourced from exclusive distributors, chosen without the benefit of a public bidding.

"What we can conclude from the report is the emergence of another scam of grand scale, which presumably occurred right before the May 2004 elections, that needs to be explained by the government," Drilon stressed.

He said the alleged misuse of the P100 million Marcos funds is separate from the P728-million fertilizer scam that was investigated by the Senate.

In the COA report, three non-government organizations were identified as having received P29 million of the Marcos funds for purchasing fertilizers and that the overpricing amounted to P23 million. — Marvin Sy