Rice NGO hits government's rice distribution to students this summer;

Cites electioneering and potential fund anomaly

April 10, 2007

Rice Watch and Action Network (R1) criticizes the government's timing of the distribution of rice to pre-school and public elementary school students this summer as a tool to generate votes for the administration candidates. The group also urges the public to watch over the reported distribution and demand transparency as the fertilizer funds anomaly in the 2004 elections is yet to be justly resolved.

"We do not want to deny the children and their families of this much needed help. However, these poor families deserve more than just 1-kilo of rice everyday. They need sustainable livelihoods that will lift them up from dire poverty. They also need appropriate government services that are dispensed at the most opportune time, not only during the election period and not through shady and dubious mechanisms," said Jessica Reyes-Cantos, R1 Lead Convenor.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered the Department of Education to distribute 1-kilo of rice to every family in selected preschools and public elementary schools for 5 days a week from April 10 to June 1, 2007. The memorandum, signed by DepEd Undersecretary Ramon Bacani on March 29, 2007, ordered the school principals to supervise the safekeeping and distribution of rice as part of the DepEd's Food for School Program.

"The National Food Authority will supply the rice to be distributed. They should be held accountable on the contracts of procurement to ensure that there will be no overpricing of goods. We can not help but fear for the repeat of another misuse of taxpayers' funds especially at the onset of the elections," said Cantos.

Cantos said the DepEd memorandum was explicit only on the process of monitoring the distribution of stocks that will be coming from the NFA and not on the process of supply contracting and procurement of rice where larger amounts of money will be involved.

The memorandum states that the school head or his/her duly designated representative/alternate shall sign the Certificate of Acceptance (Form 1) and the NFA’s Warehouse Stock Inventory (WSI) sheet. Should there be a deficiency in the volume of rice delivered, it should be reported to and coordinated immediately with the local NFA warehouses and DepEd offices.

"The NFA should not be remiss on its duty to inform the public about the process of procurement and account for every centavo of the scarce public funds that will be used to finance this dubious political project," said Cantos.

R1 earlier expressed its apprehension over the reappointment of Yap as Secretary of the Department of Agriculture in October 2006. The white paper circulated in July 2006 revealed that Yap was involved as NFA head in 2003 in the negotiated fertilizers purchase worth P432M from Philphos, a private fertilizer company. The funds were illegally transferred from DA to NFA. The paper alleged that aside from the illegal transfer, the purchase was overpriced and NFA was not authorized to procure and distribute fertilizers to the farmers. This was part of the exposé of murdered Mindanao-based broadcaster Marilyn Esperat and heralded the investigation of DA Undersecretary Joc-joc Bolante on the P728M fertilizer scam.

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