Tillers, fishers can avail of P2.7-B fund again
By Gil C. Cabacungan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
4:57 am | Monday, August 20th, 2012
The Aquino administration will make available close to P2.7 billion in
fresh funds for farmers and fishermen with the lifting of the moratorium
on the corruption-tainted Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund
(ACEF) which was allegedly used as a slush fund for the 2010 campaign by
former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan said Budget Secretary Florencio Abad Jr. had
agreed to release P1.95 billion from the ACEF fund and another P700
million in fresh infusions beginning in September this year after the
Congressional Oversight Committee on Agricultural and Fisheries
Modernization agreed on Friday to institute measures to prevent the
misuse of the fund.
"There is a clamor for more funds for the agriculture sector, especially
with the calamities that have struck our farmers and fisherfolk in the
last two years while the ACEF has been suspended. We agreed to reduce
the loan component in the ACEF, which had been the biggest source of
abuse," Pangilinan said. It was learned that in the last administration,
favored companies and individuals were getting loans without any
collateral and without having to pay any interest, Pangilinan said in an
interview.
Under the new guidelines, Pangilinan said 60 percent of the ACEF would
be given as grants to deserving farmers and fishermen while another 10
percent would be given in scholarship funds to their relatives. "The
government is not in the business of giving loans but giving grants,"
said Pangilinan.
Stringent requirements
Only 30 percent would be earmarked for loans (down from 70 percent
during the Arroyo administration) and Pangilinan said that this would be
coursed through government financial institutions (GFIs) rather than
state agencies. Pangilinan said the GFIs would implement more stringent
lending requirements, including appropriate interest rates and minimum
collateral requirements.
Fund releases from the ACEF were halted two years ago after the new
administration questioned the unusually large amount of bad loans
amassed under the P10-billion facility, which was created in 1996 as a
safety net for farmers and fishermen affected by the trade
liberalization policies of the government. When it was suspended in
January 2011, the ACEF had P8.7 billion in unpaid loans accumulated
during the nine-year term of the Arroyo administration.
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