Tip of the iceberg

WHAT PCIJ has been able to piece together, based on documents obtained from the Commission on Audit, the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Agriculture, is that out of the P728 million fund for the farm inputs and implements under the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani or GMA Project, less than P500 million has so far been accounted for. Where did the rest of the money go?

Same goes for the P1.1 billion maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) for the GMA Project Fund that former solicitor general Frank Chavez says went also to congressmen, governors and mayors. DA officials insist that the MOOE went to salaries, incentive allowances, and utilities, but documents provided by Chavez to the Ombudsman say that the DA was supposed to distribute this fund to, among others, congressional districts like Makati and Las Piñas, which both Makati Rep. Teddy Boy Locsin and Las Piñas Rep Cynthia Villar have denied receiving.

To their credit, the Ombudsman and the COA have been trying to get to the bottom of this issue since last year. Auditors and investigators have been following the money trail from the national to the regional DA offices and LGUs where they would hit a dead end. Some of the funds, they found out, went to non-government organizations (foundations and cooperatives) that have nothing do with agriculture or farming. 

One example is the Gabaymasa Foundation whose mission, according to documents at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is the rehabilitation of areas hit by natural calamities. What natural calamity has hit Parañaque for Gabaymasa to have accepted the fund in behalf of the district of Rep. Eduardo Zialcita?  Funds meant for Parañaque — along with Quezon, Palawan, Mindoro and Marinduque — went to Gabaymasa, according to the COA and Ombudsman investigations.

And then there is Aaron Foundation whose SEC records show it was formed only in 2003 with the purpose of alleviating "marginal brethrens (sic) in various humanitarian fields like giving financial and technical assistance to livelihood projects, day care centers for street children aged one to eight, and medical and dental mission in Metro Manila."  As though an afterthought, the foundation’s mission was also listed as providing "various agricultural supplies and projects throughout the Philippines."

Researchers of the Probe Team also discovered that two foundations —  the Philippine Social Development Foundation and the People’s Organization for Progress and Development Foundation — share a common office which turned out to be a house in one of the subdivision in in the southern part of Metro Manila.  These two foundations received nearly P40 million combined. Probe researchers say the neighbors had no idea that the place was the office of two foundations and that one day, a sign bearing the name of one of the foundations just mysteriously went up.

Government investigators say that the ultimate beneficiaries should have been community-based peasant organizations. Yet, some of the foundations listed as payees of the fund were not based in the community and had received money in behalf of several districts, towns or provinces. For example, one of the payee foundations in Mindanao, Masaganang Ani Para sa Magsasaka Foundation Inc. was listed as a Metro Manila-based organization.

Below are the names of groups and foundations that were beneficiaries of the GMA Fund and the amount they got.