The full implementation of the multi-billion Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA) is now besieged with fund problems, rendering the ambitious blueprint for agricultural modernization teetering on bankruptcy.

The AFMA otherwise known as Republic Act (RA) 8435 was passed by Congress in 1997 to serve as the country’s framework in modernizing agriculture and ensure food security for some 80 million Filipinos.

Its objectives, among others, were to modernize the agriculture and fisheries sectors; enhance profits and incomes particularly of the small farmers and fisherfolk; and ensure the accessibility, availability and stable supply of food to all at all times.

The AFMA has been amended through Republic Act 9281 on March 30, 2004. This extended the effectivity of tax incentives and the mandated funding support pegged at P17 billion a year up to the 2015.

The funding requirement has largely been unmet since 2006. The P17 billion a year fund requirement for AFMA in the national budget has not been religiously allocated.

Under the law, the P20-billion AFMA program would get funding from the national budget. The program would be replenished annually at P17 billion.

The AFMA, considering its meager funds, is slowly being depleted through the years because of the overdrawing of the Department of Agriculture and even by the Land Bank of the Philippines .

During the meeting last month of the Congressional Oversight Committee on Fisheries and Agriculture Modernization or COCOFAM, lawmakers noted that the AFMA program has not received its rightful share in the national budget.

The COCOFAM was the oversight body created to oversee the full implementation of the AFMA program after it was enacted into law.

Sen. Edgardo Angara, COCOFAM chair and main author of AFMA, said the budget negligence is affecting severely the effective implementation of the law and could jeopardize the long-term food security goals of the country.

Angara said the law should be been funded annually and separate from the outlay of the DA.

"The AFMA fund should be an increment to the budget of the Department of Agriculture (DA)," he said in an interview.

"Ang problema, hindi ito nangyayari at maraming taon na," Angara , who served as agriculture chief during the term of former President Joseph Estrada, added.

Angara disclosed the COCOFAM has been receiving allegations that some of the DA’s regular funds and even the loans given out by the Land Bank were drawn from the AFMA.

He stressed such is not allowed under the law.

"Instead, there have been allegations that part of the DA’s regular fund and some of the loans being given out by the Land Bank had been attributed to the AFMA," he said.

He said the huge budget supposedly going into the AFMA was only in paper but the funds are actually credited to the DA.

"If this attribution is really taking place, then it is a clear violation of the AFMA," the senator said.

Angara said the oversight body has immediately ordered an independent probe on the AFMA funds.

"We’ve got to put an impact monitoring and assessment mechanism in agriculture, and evaluate if the programs we’re implementing are working effectively. For instance, what is the impact of AFMA? How better can we implement it?" he said.

The senator could not give an estimate of the funds so far "misdrawn" from AFMA and would wait until a formal investigation is called.

But under the law, the annual increment to AFMA should at least be P8.5 billion that would go, among others, to agriculture research and development.

"We need an independent study to clarify these allegations, and from there decide the appropriate actions to take," Angara said.