MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / September 15, 2008) – Scandals after scandals, the Arroyo administration is once more entangled in another anomaly, this time involving millions of pesos in farm subsidies and rice programs for farmers, reports said Monday.
The Commission on Audit has uncovered alleged fake signatures on the list of beneficiaries of the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) program of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
It said more than 100 recipients of the P218 million expenditure of the Department of Agriculture said they received little or not farm subsidies at all for hybrid rice, farm inputs, fertilizers and seeds in Luzon and Visayas.
Several lawmakers have already called for an investigation of the GMA program.
The Department of Agriculture in the past had been dragged into the controversial fertilizer program after one of its deputy secretaries Jocelyn Bolante allegedly diverted more than P700 million to Arroyo's election campaign.
Bolante escaped the Philippines and fled to the United States after the opposition uncovered the anomaly. He was arrested in the US after the Philippine Senate canceled his visa. Arroyo, who was implicated also by the opposition to poll fraud in 2004, denied any involvement in the scandals.
Last week, noted lawyer Harry Roque Roque said he uncovered a controversial $1-billion mining deal between the Arroyo government and China’s ZTE Corporation in Mt. Diwalwal. Government spokesmen insisted the deal did not push through.
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