EDITORIAL - Preventing another scam

The former administrator of the National Food Authority, now Bohol Rep. Arthur Yap, has defended a procurement of fertilizer in May 2003 by the NFA for the Department of Agriculture. In early 2004 the Commission on Audit reportedly called Yap’s attention to the P428-million procurement. A COA auditor said the fertilizer was supposed to be distributed to farmers in time for the cropping season from May to October 2003. Yap said the deal was aboveboard and involved only 198,654 bags of fertilizer worth P93.8 million.

The COA report comes on the heels of the filing in court of plunder cases in connection with the P728-million   fertilizer   scam involving former agriculture under-secretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante and former DA chief Luis Lorenzo. Bolante is accused of distributing funds meant for farmers’ fertilizer needs to political allies of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, including those whose districts had no agricultural areas, during her campaign for the presidency in the 2004 elections.

The case against Bolante and Lorenzo could drag on for years before a final verdict is handed down. In the meantime, the administration that came to power on the promise of stamping out corruption should focus on measures that would prevent the misuse of funds meant to assist agricultural workers.

That assistance is inadequate for most of the country’s agricultural workers. The insufficiency of farm support services is one of the weaknesses of the agrarian reform program. The country is blessed with fertile lands and other natural resources, and agriculture accounts for a large chunk of annual economic growth. Yet the country is outpaced in various aspects of agricultural production by several neighboring countries with similar climates and farming conditions. There are many reasons for this, but one of them has to be the mismanagement of agricultural support funds.

In particular, the government must put in place measures that will prevent the use of agricultural funds for partisan political purposes. The local and midterm elections are two years away. Politicians should disabuse their minds from the idea of using agricultural funds for campaign purposes. The last thing the Aquino administration should want is to have its own version of a fertilizer scam.