Thursday, February 02, 2006
Foundation tied to Cebu congressman
CEBU CITY -- A foundation received P6 million in government funds to buy rice and other farm inputs for Cebu in 2004, an election year.
Four of its five incorporators were employed by Representative Antonio Yapha, but the congressman says he had no role in the foundation's set-up and was unaware his employees were involved.
The Kasosyo Foundation Inc., a non-government organization (NGO), has received over 60 percent of the P9-million fertilizer fund released for the congressional districts of Yapha, Antonio Cuenco and Simeon Kintanar, a government official said Wednesday.
Department of Agriculture (DA) 7 Director Eduardo Lecciones said he will furnish the full liquidation report of Kasosyo Foundation Inc. during a press conference Thursday.
Lecciones only named Wilfredo "Baby" Camomot, who died on Aug. 25, 2004, as one of the incorporators of the foundation. Camomot used to be a partner of Word Broadcasting Corp. in the operation of radio dyRF from 1988 to 1997.
He has also been described as Yapha's speechwriter, although the congressman says Camomot "was in no way connected" to the congressman's business.
Clinic number
However, a radio dyLA report identified the other four Kasosyo Foundation incorporators as Ofelio Puno, Nida Ordeniza, Abundio Elle and Monico Baron.
Puno is reportedly cashier of the Yapha-owned Jegan's Liner, while Ordeniza is Yapha's secretary. Elle is reportedly Jegan's tire maintenance man, while Baron is a driver of Pinamungajan Mayor Jeffrey Yapha, the congressman's son.
When the radio station tried to reach a phone number listed in the foundation's documents at the Securities and Exchange Commission, it turned out to be the number of Congressman Yapha's clinic at the Visayas Community Medical Center.
Though he admitted that Puno, Ordaniza, Elle and Baron were his employees in his business, Yapha said Camomot had not told him about recruiting his (Yapha's) workers as incorporators of the foundation.
He said it was only after Camomot died that he learned about the foundation and he advised the conduits to dissolve it.
"Camomot was in no way connected to my company. He was just a friend and a patient who would come to me in the office whenever he felt he needed me," Yapha told Sun.Star Cebu in a mobile phone interview.
Money
Yapha recalled that before the 2004 elections, an official of the DA, whom he could not name, called him up about money allotted for his district, but when he asked for its purpose, he got no specific answers.
Two months after the election, the same officer informed him by phone that farm inputs would be coming to him and that he should provide a vehicle for its distribution.
"When I asked them for a list of the farmer-beneficiaries, they didn't give me anything," Yapha said.
In a Senate hearing last Tuesday, Lecciones said the three congressional districts in Cebu were supposed to get a total of P9 million for farm inputs such as rice seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and farming implements.
That prompted Sen. Juan Ponce-Enrile to ask: "Do we have rice farms in the city of Cebu?"
Lecciones added Wednesday that of the P9 million, P5.4 million went to the DA 7 through Land Bank before the May 10, 2004 elections.
The remaining P3.6 million was released after the polls.
Go-signal
Upon the release of the money, Lecciones said, he immediately informed Cuenco, Yapha and Kintanar about it, and all of them gave the go-signal to implement the project.
"They (Cuenco, Yapha and Kintanar) were happy when I told them about the fund allocation for their districts," Lecciones said.
Lecciones said that when the P5.4 million was initially released to DA 7, he immediately divided the amount at P1.8 million per district.
But because his authority to disburse funds at that time was limited to P1 million, he sought another authority from the DA central office to disburse P1.8 million to each congressional district.
One condition was that the project would be implemented by a contractor selected through a public bidding, by a local government unit (LGU), or by a non-government organization.
In the case of Argao, an LGU, the requirements were a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the town and DA, plus the council's authorization for Mayor Wilfredo Caminero to enter into the MOA.
NGOs that wanted access to the funds were also required to submit a program.
Informed
For an LGU, the fund was released in full. For an NGO, 15 percent was released upon the signing of MOA, 35 percent upon the project's implementation, and the balance of 50 percent upon the completion of the project.
"While doing all these, we informed the concerned congressmen," Lecciones said.
Lecciones added that there is still P1.2 million in the bank for Argao, which was not released because the Municipal Government failed to liquidate P1.8 million-60 percent of the allocation for Cebu's second district.
Argao, the DA official said, submitted a liquidation report but this was not accepted due to the lack of an audited financial statement.
Meanwhile, businessman Jonathan Guardo, who plans to challenge Cuenco in next year's elections, asked that the congressman explain himself "for propriety's sake."
He urged Cuenco to reveal the beneficiaries in Cebu City and how much they received of the money, which was coursed through a foundation.
"Tony Cuenco and the rest of the Cebuano congressmen mentioned should call a press conference and explain what happened. This is a serious situation and a huge embarrassment if they fail to explain properly," Guardo said.
Cuenco, in an interview Tuesday, said he received no funding from Malacañang or the agriculture department during the election campaign in 2004 and urged the DA to verify its information. (EOB/With AIV of Sun.Star Cebu)
(February 2, 2006 issue)
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