Panganiban, Neri to be summoned to fertilizer scam hearing

The House good government committee has invited Agriculture Secretary Domingo Panganiban and Budget Secretary Romulo Neri to its initial hearing on the P2.8-billion fertilizer fund scam on Tuesday.

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, whose privilege speech on the controversy prompted the inquiry, said yesterday the two Cabinet members should be able to shed light on where and how the money was spent, and on findings by the Commission on Audit (CA) that a large portion of the fund was skimmed through overpricing.

He said the good government committee, chaired by Davao City Rep. Ruy Elias Lopez, should dig deeper into the controversy and should pursue its investigation, no matter who gets hurt.

The Senate agriculture committee, chaired by Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr., has opened its own investigation into the alleged fertilizer fund diversion.

The fertilizer and farm input funds, totaling P2.806 billion, were released during the presidential election campaign last year, between February and April. The election was on May 10.

Upon Lagman’s suggestion, the committee also invited Agriculture Undersecretary Belinda Gonzales and Budget Undersecretary Mario Relampagos.

The Albay lawmaker noted that Gonzales seems to be more knowledgeable than Panganiban on the fertilizer fund and where and how it was spent, since it is the undersecretary who has been explaining the Department of Agriculture (DA)’s side of the controversy.

It was Gonzales and another Panganiban underling who met two weeks ago with Magsaysay to discuss the direction the Senate probe was taking.

According to Magsaysay, the two agriculture officials warned him that unless the inquiry was stopped, it could lead to the doorsteps of "executive officials, congressmen and senators."

Magsaysay said he interpreted the warning as a form of blackmail. He has also received death threats in connection with his inquiry. Gonzales has denied in a radio interview that she and the other official tried to blackmail the senator.

As for Relampagos, he signed the first fund release of P728 million on Feb. 3, 2004.

The day before, former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn "Jocjoc" Bolante had requested for the money. He supported his request with a list of 110 congressmen, 53 governors and 26 town mayors who supposedly asked for the funds.

However, most of the "proponent-recipients" claimed they did not ask for the money. They said Bolante just informed them that the funds were available. Many of them said agriculture officials chose the suppliers of fertilizers and other farm inputs.

Several of those listed as "proponents" did not receive even a single centavo of the millions supposed to be allocated for their districts.

In all, there were a total of four fund releases from Malacañang. The first release of P728 million was followed by another release of P1.1 billion just eight days later, on Feb. 11. The last release was made just a few days before the May 10 election.

Lagman, a former budget secretary, said the initial fund of P728 million was made available to Bolante just a day after he sent the request to the Palace.

"That is too fast. In my years in the budget department, I don’t know of any agency or official who got the money he asked for in that record time," he said.

One town in Lagman’s district received 625 bottles of liquid fertilizer worth P500,000. But the congressman said he had nothing to do with it.

The other districts in Albay and Masbate were allotted P60.7 million in fertilizer funds by their congressmen and one representative from the party-list group Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives.

They spent the money on purchases of liquid fertilizer from one supplier through two foundations. The transfer of the funds to the foundations was covered by a memorandum of agreement.

The Commission on Audit discovered, however, that the liquid fertilizer bought by the foundations was overpriced by 800 percent to 1,300 percent. Auditors reported that the type of fertilizer, available on the market at P51 to P90 per bottle, was purchased at P800 per bottle.

They estimated that of the P60.7 million spent in Bicol for liquid fertilizer, nearly P49 million, or 82 percent, was skimmed through overpricing.

Similar price padding has been uncovered in some towns in Cebu and Ifugao.