MILITANT groups on Thursday cast doubt that the P1,500 fertilizer subsidy promised by Malacañang will reach the intended beneficiaries, dismissing Malacanang’s public announcement as just another spinoff of the P728-million fertilizer scam.

Leaders of the national peasant federation Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), the fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) and the Amihan-National Federation of Peasant Women issued a joint statement warning the people of the scheme.

“It is another fertilizer scam in the tradition of the P728-million fertilizer scam in 2004. This is fertilizer scam part 2 in the making,” the statement said.

The groups were reacting to Malacañang’s announcement on Wednesday that farmers will be given a fertilizer subsidy amounting to P 1,500 to help them buy fertilizer. Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the fertilizer-subsidy to be given to farmers was part of the P43.5-billion program aimed at boosting rice production in the country, which President Arroyo announced at the food summit on April 14.

Ermita said the Department of Agriculture (DA) will take charge of the fertilizer-subsidy program and coupons will be distributed to farmers to claim the P1,500 fertilizer fund. Of this amount, P1,000 will come from the  DA, while the remaining P500 will come from local government units.

“This government is using and invoking the name of the Filipino farmers to justify the mass withdrawal of taxpayers’ money and satisfy their eternal thirst for high crimes of corruption. This fertilizer scam part 2 is bigger, bolder and extremely shameless compared the P728-million fertilizer scam ransacked by the corrupt regime in 2004 to fund the presidential ambition of President Arroyo,” KMP secretary-general Danilo Ramos said.

Ramos, one of the complainants in the plunder case filed by KMP, Pamalakaya and Amihan in June 2004 against President Arroyo, former DA Secretary Luisito Lorenzo and DA Undersecretary Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante, said the Arroyo government is merely engaged in a propaganda blitzkrieg to score a favorable public opinion for the highly politically isolated government.

Bolante has never been charged criminally but the Senate has issued an arrest warrant for the former DA official, who fled the country during the height of the congressional inquiry. 

With his petition for political asylum having been dismissed by United States authorities, some senators led by Sen. Panfilo Lacson want the Department of Justice to extradite Bolante, who was charged in the US for violating immigration laws.

Pamalakaya national chairman Fernando Hicap has also dared the government to extradite Bolante so he will have his day in court in connection with the fertilizer scam. 

Hicap agreed with Ramos that the second stage of the P728-million fertilizer scam is very predictable, with Malacañang publicly announcing the fertilizer subsidy, saying the government is merely preparing the stage for the massive release of billions of taxpayers’ money in preparation for the 2010 national elections.

“The government is trying to hit two birds with one stone in connection with the sudden and all-out release of billions of people’s money. It wants to score points in the propaganda department and, at the same time, make sure money is available in time for the electoral derby in 2010,” Hicap added.

Pamalakaya theorized that the P43.5-billion agricultural fund is more intended for the 2010 presidential, senatorial and local elections, where Malacañang is expected to finance the electoral stints of hardcore pro-Arroyo politicians from the national down to the local levels.

WITH the nine-year high inflation rate, independent think tank Ibon Foundation further urged the government to consider restoring oil-industry regulation to ease the pressure on high oil prices.

GOVERNMENT-RUN Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) said Thursday seven parties interested in the acquisition of the 620-megawatt (MW) Limay Combined Cycle Power Plant have attended the prebid conference conducted on Wednesday.

THE government bragged that the intense political noise that hounded the administration early this year did nothing to affect the entry of fresh capital into the country as combined investments approved by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) and the Board of Investments (BOI) increased by 54 percent from January to May.

CLARK FREE PORT—Thousands of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from Central and Northern Luzon are expected to benefit from chartered flights now offered by TransGlobal Airways at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA).

MILITANT groups on Thursday cast doubt that the P1,500 fertilizer subsidy promised by Malacañang will reach the intended beneficiaries, dismissing Malacanang’s public announcement as just another spinoff of the P728-million fertilizer scam.

DAVAO CITY—After nurses, doctors, teachers, skilled labor and engineers, now the agriculture sector is complaining of a lack of professionals.

Environment group Greenpeace assailed independent power producer TeaM Energy’s “crooked smear campaign” that its flagship Rainbow Warrior had released untreated wastewater into the waters of Pagbilao Bay based on “dubious test results.”