Friday, November 21, 2008 Arnaiz says P5M fertilizer fund went to beneficiaries
REPRESENTATIVE George Arnaiz (2nd district, Negros Oriental) said the P5-million fertilizer fund the province received went to legitimate beneficiaries and not to private pockets.
"Not a single centavo went to private pockets and I can assure that to the people," the Negrense lawmaker said who was then the governor when the fertilizer fund was distributed to local officials.
To support the lawmaker's claim, Capitol Agriculturist Gregorio Paltinca said the P5 million funds allocated for Negros Oriental was released. He also presented the documents to show the list of companies that won the bidding done by the local General Services Office and the list of organizations that received the farm inputs and equipment.
Four suppliers won the 10,670 bags of organic and inorganic fertilizer worth P3,249,960 constituting the first tranche released by the Department of Budget and Management to the Provincial Government.
The beneficiaries are the Barangay Agricultural Development Centers (BADC), which received 8,136 bags of organic and inorganic fertilizers; Federated Farmers' Association, 1, 157 bags; cooperatives, 627 bags; RIC Federation, 169 bags; 4-H Federation, 191 bags and the Research Division, 390 bags.
To further stressed his point, he called on the Commission on Audit (COA) to check and conduct inspections and verify whether those listed as recipient non-government organizations (NGOs) and individuals do exist and are actually using the farm inputs and equipment."
Representative Arnaiz also pointed out that the farm inputs and equipment were released months after the election, just in time for the new planting season precisely to avoid linking the program to the 2004 elections.
