And they excoriated
the AFP for diversions?
Editorial
‘A heist of P14 billion is just too tempting
for the thieves.’
We suppose it is just
right that the lump sum appropriations in the budget of the agriculture
department are named after Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. There’s the Ginintuang
Masaganang Ani (GMA) rice program. There’s the GMA corn program. There’s the
GMA high valued crop program. Then there’s the GMA livestock program.
The programs have often served as a blank check for thievery.
How fitting they should be named after the one who is widely perceived as the
most corrupt president this country has ever had, bar none, not even Ferdinand
Marcos.
There was the fertilizer scam. There was the swine dispersal
scam. We now know more or less the modus operandi used in diverting taxpayers’
money into private pockets. Money is released to purported non-government
organizations. The fake NGOs nominally buy whatever inputs are required under a
particular program. Suppliers make ghost deliveries, cash in their checks and
hand over the "tongpats" to the scammers.
A related though not exactly similar scam embroiled the Armed
Forces some years back, called "conversion." Unit commanders would make out
checks for purported purchases. The payees would simply hand over cash
equivalent of the face value of the check, minus a percentage in payment for
their laundering service, to the unit commanders.
The difference with the fertilizer scam pulled off by Joc Joc
Bolante was that the latter involved many layers. The result was the same:
government money ended up in the hands of the sticky fingered.
In the proposed 2009 budget, there’s around P14 billion in
lump sum appropriations that is potential target for thievery. The proposed
items and their appropriations are GMA rice with P10 billion, GMA corn with P1.5
billion, GMA high valued crops with P2.72 billion, and GMA livestock with P944
million.
These "special purpose funds," according to Sen. Pia Cayetano,
are allocated to the office of the agriculture secretary for the implementation
of the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act.
As "special purpose funds," there is wide discretion on the
part of the agriculture secretary on how the money is to be spent, including the
designation of the implementing officers.
We are not saying Agriculture Secretary Art Yap is a thief.
Cito Lorenzo took not a single peso when he headed DA (his family owned the
giant agribusiness concern Del Monte), but he could only look the other way as
the Palace-designated operator, Joc Joc Bolante, diverted money for fertilizer
and other farm inputs to the campaign of Arroyo in 2004.
Who the new Joc Joc will be is anybody’s guess. But there’s
more Joc Jocs from where he came from. No, we are not referring to Capiz, his
home province. We mean the Makati-based civic organization which has gained
notoriety under the Arroyo administration.
A heist of P14 billion is just too tempting for the thieves. | 
