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Sunday, February 05, 2006
Cebu solon braces for probe on fertilizer funds
By Elias O. Baquero
CEBU CITY -- Representative Antonio Cuenco Saturday said he has nothing to do with the P728-million fertilizer fund scam that has dragged agriculture department officials, congressmen and local officials.
In a press conference, Cuenco (Cebu City, south district) repeated his earlier statement that he only knew about the P3-million fund release after Department of Agriculture (DA) Director for Central Visayas Eduardo Lecciones appeared in a Senate budget hearing.
Cuenco said he met Lecciones Friday night and the director told him that he erred in mentioning his name as one of those being informed before the fertilizer project was implemented in 2004.
"I repeat, I don't know about it. I never benefited anything from it. Wa ko magbinuang. I will try my best to clarify your queries," Cuenco told reporters in his residence.
Sun.Star Cebu tried to reach Lecciones but his mobile phone was off.
Cuenco would urge the Senate committee on agriculture to continue its investigation and summon all those involved in the fund release.
Aside from Cuenco's district, Cebu Province's second and third districts also got a P3-million allocation each. The money, according to Lecciones, was used for the purchase of "farm inputs and farm implements."
Kasosyo
In the Cebu City south and third districts' case, liquid fertilizers were purchased. Solid fertilizer from Atlas Fertilizer Corp. was bought for Argao town in the second district.
The fund release is under scrutiny in the Senate, following allegations that the money allocated for congressional districts were used to make sure President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was given a fresh mandate in the 2004 elections.
Lecciones earlier said P6 million was given to Kasosyo Foundation Inc. to implement the project in the south and third districts.
The incorporators of Kasosyo Foundation were found to be people associated with Representative Antonio Yapha, who represents the third district in Congress.
Yapha has washed his hands of any involvement in the foundation that was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2002.
During the press conference Saturday, Cuenco waved a folder, which he said he borrowed from Lecciones.
The folder reportedly contained data that 875 farmers received 2,000 liters of liquid fertilizer to cover 500 hectares of agricultural lands in Barangays Pamutan, Tabonan, Sudlon 1, Toong and Sudlon 2, all in the south district.
Cuenco, though, would not show the folder to the media.
Coincidence
Pamutan Barangay Captain Nenita Bacus earlier said that she saw Cuenco's staff during the fertilizer distribution.
But the congressman said that his personnel, Peter Cuizon, Pepito Ledesma and their driver, were inspecting a sports complex project in the barangay at that time.
He said their presence in the area was only coincidental.
Lecciones, in an earlier interview, said the five-man monitoring committee headed by George Paculba, chief of the DA-Central Visayas crops management division, validated the list of beneficiaries and checked whether they received the fertilizer, as stated in the Kasosyo liquidation report.
The monitoring committee report was made the basis for DA-Central Visayas to request DA central office to release the remaining P2.4 million. This represented 40 percent of the P6 million allocated for the districts of Cuenco and Yapha in 2004.
However, Mayor Cynthia Moreno of Aloguinsan town told radio dyLA Saturday that they still have fertilizer stocks to be distributed.
P1.2M pending
Roger Adan, vice president of the Upland Farmers' Association in Aloguinsan, also told dyLA that the fertilizer came from Pinamungajan town and delivered to Aloquinsan in a convoy accompanied by former councilor Danny Margallo.
Adan said they were told by Margallo that the fertilizer came from Congressman Yapha.
Both Aloguinsan and Pinamungajan are in the third district.
Kasosyo Foundation's liquidation report was endorsed by a private certified public accountant, Lecciones said in an earlier interview.
The DA official, however, could not name the new Kasosyo chairman who replaced Wilfredo "Baby" Camomot, who died on August 25, 2004.
The Argao Municipal Government, on the other hand, has yet to liquidate the P1.8 million it received. This is the reason the remaining P1.2 was not released to the town. (EOB/Sun.Star Cebu/Sunnex)
(February 5, 2006 issue)
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