MANILA, Philippines -- Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap has vehemently denied any involvement in the "design, implementation, and monitoring" of the P728 million fertilizer fund, which the Senate is investigating.

In a phone interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Yap said at that time, around February 2004, he was appointed by the President as undersecretary of agriculture for Luzon operations, upon the request of then Agriculture Secretary Cito Lorenzo.

"I was appointed because he wanted me to assist him in addressing the high poultry and pork prices at that time," Yap said. "He wanted to ask my assistance in possibly considering having to import chicken, poultry and pork products to help stabilize the price and supply."

"That's the reason why he asked me, to handle problems," he added. "He needed help from me to help in the administrative tasks of crafting solutions."

Yap said that even if he was appointed undersecretary for operations, he did not handle anything that concerned fertilizers and funds that were currently being investigated.

"Actually, I don't have anything to do with operations at all," he added, noting that Memorandum Order 13 series of 2003 specifically states that the agriculture secretary [Lorenzo at that time] "shall henceforth directly supervise operations and its attached agencies."

MO 13 did not include Yap's name on the list of the designated operations officers.

Yap noted that he was designated as undersecretary in his concurrent capacity as administrator of the National Food Authority.

He also said that the only fertilizer procurement he handled was when the NFA conducted a public bidding in 2003, which led to a case against him which the Ombudsman dismissed.

"It was dismissed because it had been publicly bidded [out] and there was no evidence of overpricing, unlike this one," he added.