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Thursday, February 09, 2006
DA withholds papers on Cebu fertilizer fund
The Department of Agriculture (DA) 7 refused to release copies of the liquidation documents covering the P6-million fertilizer fund released to Kasosyo Foundation Inc.
DA 7 Director Eduardo Lecciones told Sun.Star Cebu these were already submitted to the Commission on Audit (COA).
Moreover, Lecciones said their central office sent an advisory for them to refrain from making further statements on the fertilizer fund.
Speaking more about the issue will already be sub judice, he said, considering that former solicitor general Frank Chavez has filed graft charges.
Charged by Chavez were former secretaries Luisito Lorenzo and Arthur Yap, undersecretaries Jocelyn Bolante, Belinda Gonzales and Edmund Sana and Assistant Secretary Ibarra Poliquit.
The case prompted the ongoing Senate investigation on the P728 million that Bolante allegedly allocated to different congressional districts and local officials in 2004.
The Senate is looking into whether the funds were used for President Arroyo’s election campaign.
Bolante has been invited to the inquiry but has reportedly left for the United States.
Of the P6 million released to Kasosyo Foundation, P3 million went to the Cebu City south district and Cebu Province’s third district.
Both Reps. Antonio Cuenco (south district) and Antonio Yapha third district) have denied any hand in the allocation. Lecciones earlier also said that the funds were coursed through Kasosyo Foundation.
Lecciones said that when Kasosyo Chairman Wilfredo “Baby” Camomot died on Aug. 25, 2004, a man whose name he forgot replaced Camomot and was the one who liquidated the P6 million.
Cuenco, in a press conference last Feb. 4, waved a folder that he said he borrowed from Lecciones. It allegedly contained the machine copy of Kasosyo’s liquidation report. But Cuenco refused to show this to the media because he had no authority from Lecciones.
Lecciones said that in 2002, when Kasosyo was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), it was tapped to implement the chicken dispersal project in Yapha’s district.
That project cost P1,273,416.
SEC papers also show that the Kasosyo’s incorporators are from Poblacion, Pinamungajan, the hometown of Yapha. Yapha’s clinic at the Visayas Community Medical Center was listed as the foundation’s office address.
The P6 million is still not on record at the SEC. While the submission of reports is either quarterly, semi-annual or annual, the last general information sheet (GIS) that Kasosyo filed was dated March 31, 2004 yet, stating a fund balance of more than P89,000.
SEC Regional Manager Merle Cunanan said that if Kasosyo really did not filea GIS for the second half of 2004 and the entire year of 2005, the foundation could be penalized.
However, she said there is no basis for her office to conduct an investigation because nobody has filed a complaint. (EOB)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (February 9, 2006 issue)
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