Senators Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan II and Jinggoy Estrada. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Opposition Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Gregorio Honasan on Tuesday admitted requesting funds for agrarian reform projects in 2011, but said it was the mayors who endorsed the groups that proposed the projects that cost the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) P220 million.
Estrada and Honasan told reporters they had documents that would show that it was the local officials who requested the funds for the agrarian reform communities and endorsed the 13 groups that proposed to carry out the projects.
“So I requested Secretary [Virgilio] de los Reyes for funding assistance in the amount of P50 million,” Estrada said. “It was up to them what they would give.”
Not PDAF
Estrada made clear that the P50 million was not to come from his share of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), a pork barrel that channels funds to congressional districts.
[They] have letters sent to me, the mayors whom we recommended. They were the ones who actually endorsed the NGOs (nongovernment organizations,” Estrada added.
The DAR has recommended to President Aquino that legal action be taken against the people behind the irregular disbursement of P220 million.
Estrada reportedly endorsed projects costing P70 million and to be undertaken in 10 agrarian reform communities (ARC) by 10 NGOs controlled by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged brains behind the P10-billion pork barrel scam.
Honasan reportedly asked for the funding of projects in 14 towns that would cost P150 million.
Letter from Infanta
Estrada showed reporters a letter sent to him by the mayor of Infanta, Quezon province, who was requesting P5 million in financial assistance for agrarian reform beneficiaries.
The letter read in part, “This amount will benefit various beneficiaries of the municipality by means of maximizing the output of farm products which has been very much hit by the recent widespread economic uncertainty. In view of the foregoing, I wish to request that the above financial support be implemented by Social Development Program for Farmers Foundation (Inc.).”
“They were the ones that endorsed the NGOs, not I,” Estrada said.
Estrada said his office did not have a record of a request for P70 million for agrarian reform communities.
“I have a record for P50 million. I don’t know how it became P70 million. I don’t have any record in the office for P70 million,” Estrada said.
Honasan, head of the Senate committee on agrarian reform, said he would work with the DAR to find out how the funds he had asked for agrarian reform beneficiaries were spent.
“It was endorsed by the [local governments], it has documentation, and I have made a statement already. We will be coordinating with the DAR so that I would know where the funds I allocated for the agrarian reform beneficiaries and communities went and for any lapses to be corrected,” Honasan said.
No documentary proof
“It’s on record, there’s no documentation that will point to the impression they are creating that we endorsed the NGOs,” he said.
Honasan said he contacted the DAR “to make sure the statements are accurately reported, not to insinuate that on the basis of incomplete reports—in fact, inaccurate reports—people are being indicted.”
Asked how the DAR responded to his communication with its officials, Honasan said, “I’ll stop there.”
Honasan said his “due diligence” ended after he responded to the local governments’ request for financial assistance.
“I asked them what they needed. After all, I’m still chairman of the committee on agrarian reform,” Honasan said, indicating that he referred the local governments’ requests to the DAR.
Honasan said he asked funding for “development, education, empowering of agrarian reform beneficiaries and communities.”