Ex-Arroyo exec blames food crisis on corruption at DA
By Desiree Caluza
Northern Luzon Bureau
First Posted 01:21:00 05/14/2008
Filed Under: rice problem, Graft & Corruption, Agriculture
BAGUIO CITY, Philippines--A former Cabinet member has pointed at corruption in the Department of Agriculture as one of the reasons for the country's current food crisis.
Teresita Deles, former head of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), said more cases of alleged fund misuse or misallocation in the department should be investigated to find out if public funds really went to agricultural programs and projects geared toward achieving national food security.
One such case, she said, was the alleged diversion of funds meant to provide fertilizer to farmers to the election campaign fund of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2004. Then Agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante, who was implicated in the scandal, evaded a Senate investigation of the scandal and is now detained in the United States for violating immigration laws.
Deles, who resigned from the Cabinet in 2005 following allegations that Ms Arroyo stole the 2004 presidential election, was guest speaker during the commencement exercises at the University of the Cordilleras here on Saturday.
"I think [the fertilizer scam] is [a reason for] the food crisis that we are experiencing right now because [DA officials] diverted the irrigation and other agricultural support from true agricultural areas [and used these for] political purposes," Deles later told the Inquirer.
"The fact is that there was very important money that was supposed to go to agriculture but it was not used."
Warning signs
Bolante never appeared before the Senate, Deles said, "because it was obvious that there was misuse of funds and for all we know, there are other cases of misuse." Cases of corruption should be exposed and resolved, she added.
Reached by the Inquirer Tuesday night, Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap urged Deles to look at the history and successes of Philippine agriculture before making such statements about corruption. "It is easy to make such statements, but I think Deles should be generous enough to first look at the history of increases in yield per hectare in local farms from 2001 until 2007," he said.
These certain gains and growths in the farm sector could not be achieved if these funds had been misused or misallocated, Yap said.
Deles said the Arroyo administration had failed to recognize the signs--higher demand and low supply of rice--that indicated a worsening crisis which is now being experienced by the people. "According to a former agriculture secretary, the signs were there already in 2001, [that] the demand and supply would get higher. The government could have started the stock building," she said.
"A government in office [for] eight years should have done the overall planning by looking at the global landscape of rice and grains and should have been able to foresee the situation. These are the situations that do not happen overnight."
Even Ms Arroyo's existing policies on agriculture are not being implemented well to address the crisis, Deles said.
One of the programs that the government did not implement, she said, was the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act of 1997 (Afma), a landmark legislation that aims to develop and modernize agriculture and fisheries in the country. "Afma was going to be implemented but it did not happen, the irrigation support was not given attention," she said.
"Deles must look at the specifics because Philippine rice production has a story to tell, and the story is, despite great odds against certain challenges, the local farm sector has managed to keep increasing its yield per hectare per hectare," Yap explained.
Even "the Irri (International Rice Reseach Institute) has said that out of all rice-producing countries only the Philippines has experienced real growth," Yap said.
The Irri earlier said that in the case of rice production, the Philippines has fared relatively better with a average annual growth rate of 1.5 percent from 1991 until 2007. Worldwide average annual growth in rice yields has slackened 0.8 percent in the same period, it said.
Yap had earlier attributed the current food situation to adverse effects of global warming or climate change, and the constriction of global stocks, among others.
With a report from Amy Remo
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