COA: P36-M overprice in lawmakers’ fertilizer

Liquid fertilizer purchased using the pork barrel funds of three Bicol congressmen and a party-list representative was overpriced by as much as P36.4 million, according to a Commission on Audit (COA) report.

The report, sent this week to the Senate and the House of Representatives, showed that the "grossly overpriced" fertilizer purchases were financed out of a total of P47.2 million in priority development assistance fund (PDAF) allocations of Representatives Joseph Santiago of Catanduanes and Renato Unico Jr. of Camarines Norte, Ernesto Pablo of the party-list group Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives, and the late Rep. Fausto Seachon Jr. of Masbate.

Also covered by the audit was a P3-million allocation of Minority Leader Francis Escudero for a milk feeding and livestock production program in his district in Sorsogon, but the report mentioned no finding of irregularities in the use of the money.

The report showed that the liquid fertilizer was bought at P800 per bottle when it was available on the market for only P58.50 to P90.54 per bottle.

Seachon allocated P20 million for the fertilizer purchases for his district; Santiago, P12.2 million; Unico, P10 million; and Pablo, P5 million.

At P800 per bottle, the purchases were overpriced by "828 percent to 1,267 percent, or from P34.5 million to P36.4 million, based on the total allocation of PDAF funds of the four congressmen totaling P47.2 million," the COA said.

It identified the brand of liquid fertilizer as Prime EC Foliar, which was procured from Jo-Chris Trading. It said other brands such as Bayfolan and Superharvest, which were as effective, if not more, for the purpose for which Prime EC Foliar was used, were available at less than P100 per bottle.

The COA said while the congressmen’s funds were released to the Department of Agriculture, they were given to two private organizations, identified as Philippine Social Development Foundation and People’s Organization for Progress and Development Foundation, which implemented the lawmakers’ fertilizer distribution project and did the purchases.

Auditors tried to locate the two fund conduits but reported that they did "not hold office at their given address." Both foundations listed their address as Block 23, Lot 59, Phase 2, EP Housing Village, Western Bicutan, Taguig, Metro Manila. The audit teams said the two did not have "proven expertise" to carry out the tasks contracted to them. The auditors discovered liquid fertilizer was not suitable for rice and corn, for which it was intended.

They said liquid fertilizer, including Prime EC Foliar, "is directly applied on the foliage (leaf assemblage) of a certain plant and not on the soil, thus the use of liquid fertilizer is not appropriate for rice and corn."

They sought out farmer-beneficiaries and were told different stories: fertilizer intended for some towns had not been delivered at the time of their visit; some fertilizer was applied to pineapple plants "for fear of negative results (on rice and corn)"; while in other areas, when applied to rice and corn, it "did not live up to expectation."

The auditors learned that an additional P14 million the agriculture department had allocated for the Bicol region out of hundreds of millions in its GMA (Ginintuang Masaganang Ani) project funds was also used for the procurement of liquid fertilizer through the two conduit private foundations.

They said "the same issues of irregularity, excessive prices and illegal disbursements" were present in the smaller P14-million procurement.

The Bicol fertilizer procurement took place in late 2003 up to last year. It appears to be connected to the P3-billion fertilizer scam that the Senate agriculture committee chaired by Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr. is investigating.

The Senate has been seeking former agriculture secretary Luis "Cito" Lorenzo and his former undersecretary, Jocelyn "Jocjoc" Bolante, to shed light on the scam.

The P3 billion was released in the middle of last year’s presidential election campaign.