GMA bares P2-B ‘idle’ fund at LBP

Sometimes there are two billion reasons for a president to celebrate.

President Arroyo said yesterday the government has stumbled upon P2 billion lying "idle" at the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) and said this will be used to implement the Agricultural and Fishery Modernization Act (AFMA).

The money is part of other unspecified amounts under the Public Law 480 loan for rice from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Fertilizer Funds.

"It will be a waste if this P2 billion at the Land Bank remains unutilized. It is still there. It is idle," the President said before a multisectoral assembly at the Mindanao State University in Marawi City yesterday.

Mrs. Arroyo announced that the government also plans to sell rice donated by the United States under PL 480 to raise more funds for the project.

She added that the government will also tap half of the P1-billion assistance from Saudi Arabia for the country’s agricultural modernization.

"So we had a meeting yesterday by the Cabinet Cluster on Agricultural Modernization to look for additional funds where to get them and from what agencies of the government," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo said farmers and fisherfolk can avail themselves of the P2 billion at the LBP by filing the necessary loan applications with the proper government agency.

Mrs. Arroyo said the government will sell to other countries the US-donated rice so the proceeds can be used to modernize the country’s agriculture.

She said the P2 billion was discovered at the LBP when the Cabinet Cluster was meeting at Malacañang to scrounge for P20 billion to implement the Agricultural and Fishery Modernization Act.

"So there was this P2 billion at the Land Bank which emerged as still unused. I don’t know why the previous administration failed to mention this to those looking for funds then for the AFMA," she said.

President Arroyo said the Estrada administration had allocated P12 billion for the project and left the Cabinet to look for another P8 billion.