Mayors deny receiving P900M farm aid from alleged Napoles-run NGO

At least four local government heads denied that their city or municipality benefited from the P900 million Malampaya fund, the national government's earnings from the Palawan Malampaya gas project, that was supposed to be distributed among areas affected by Typhoon Pepeng and Ondoy in 2009. The non-government organization Ginintuang Alay Para sa Magsasaka Foundation supposedly distributed the funds to some 97 municipal and city mayors to provide their constituents with “Farm Initiative Production Kit(s)”. The package supposedly contained financial grants, fertilizers, and seeds to jumpstart planting among affected farmers. The foundation was allegedly founded by businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles, who was implicated in the P10 billion “pork-barrel scam,” in which a Napoles-led corporation supposedly funneled lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund, commonly known as the pork barrel, into ghost projects. However, the local government leaders denied benefiting from the P900 million farm initiative, saying that their signatures were forged. “Wala po kami na-receive na project dito sa Cabatuan City tungkol diyan,” said former Cabatuan, Isabel mayor Atanacio Dayrit Jr. in a “24 Oras” report. “Ang nakalagay sa signature ay Anastacio. I never signed [that], my real name is Atanacio. So yun pa lang fake na.” For his part, Rosales, Pangasinan’s former mayor Ricardo Revita said. “Ginamit nila yung farmers para sa pangkabuhayan package na ito naman ay masasabi ko na ghost project dahil wala ni isang dumating ni isang [gamit] na para yun e sa mga farmers.” Mayors Roderick Tiongson of San Miguel and Anastacia Vistan of Plaridel, both from the province Bulacan, also said that their signatures were forged. Whistleblower Merlina Suñas, a self-confessed employee of the Napoles-led JLN Corp., earlier revealed that she had participated in forging the mayors’ signatures to channel the fund under the businesswoman’s auspices. More than the mayors, it is the farmers, the supposed beneficiaries of the P900 million farm aid, that feel most defrauded by the alleged scam as they denied signing any documents related to the “Farm Initiative Production Kit.” “Ito raw ‘yung pirma [ko] na hindi naman. Wala akong pinirmahan ni isa,” Salvador Ramos said in the same television report. Meanwhil, Jojo Naganyo, a construction worker, was shocked to learn that he was listed as a beneficiary of the program. “Nagtataka nga ako, Sir, bakit ‘yung pangalan ko ay nasabit kasi hindi naman po ako farmer. Balak ko ring sumama na magsampa ng reklamo kasi ginamit nila ang pangalan ko na hindi ko alam,” he said. Authorities are now searching for Napoles as a Makati Regional Trial Court issued a warrant of arrest against her over a different case. — Rouchelle R. Dinglasan/DVM, GMA News