Hounding anomalies in rural settings – will they reach the new Malacañang?

By CHITO DELA TORRE, delatorrechito@yahoo.com
June 19, 2010

Time is now to monitor government equipment that were given to barangays.  Are they still functional?  Are they still owned by the barangay government, or by the group of persons – mostly farmers – to whom they were entrusted?  Reports should be sent to the new Philippine president – erstwhile Senator Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Cojuangco Aquino III upon his assumption of the presidency come June 30, 2010, on the first hour after outgoing prez Gloria Arroyo seals her rule at exactly 12 high noon of that day.  Meanwhile, president-elect Noynoy should anticipate that matters like these should be looked into with dispatch by himself and his administration.

Catbalogan – the seat of the provincial government – is the locus from where top decisions are made as to what should be sent down to the barangays.  It is also where the decision makers often meet albeit its being the residence of some of them.  Here people mix, from the educated to the less educated and the uneducated.  Here they get information and clarifications on issues that they bring back home, to their communities and families.  And it is also here that they reveal information about anomalous transactions and illegal and unlawful activities, including abuses of government officials and employees, obtaining in their own communities.  That’s why people here want to know what has gotten to all those that have been sent to the rural areas in response to requests or in implementation of decisions.

Sometime late in year 2003, then Second District representative Antonio Eduardo Nachura caused to be delivered to selected barangays 8 rice threshers, each worth P83,000 with a 9-horsepower Yanmar air-cooled engine to power the equipment, for farmers to increase their palay production and harvests.  The Samar Agricultural and Fishery Multi-Purpose Cooperative was tasked to monitor the use and care of those P664,000-worth 9 threshers and see to it that those machines would still be useable until today and for some years more.

Now, what happened to those threshers?

Sta. Rita got one each for barangays Anibongon, Binanalan, and Cadara(gan).  Named to account for them were punong barangay Jeracleo Cajipe, the Anibongon rice producers association through Vedasto Lagario, and Cadara(gan) rice producers association, in that order.

Basey got its shares of the blessing for sitio Bangon of Canmanila thru Romualdo Echano, Serum thru Rolando G. Jaingue, and Villa Aurora thru Meliton Lancanan.

Villareal received only one for San Rafael, care of farmer Jorge Abainza.

Another listed recipient barangay was “Villa Rosa” of Basey, with village chief Sisinio O. Morabor as custodian.  But wait. There is no barangay by that name in Basey!

The custodian recipients in Basey and Villareal are also supposed to render a written report on what has been the effect of the threshers to the palay harvesting work in their localities.  There has been no published account on any of the required report so far.

Never mind if the recipient trustees of those rice threshers were believed to be political supporters of the benefactor who was then a staunch and highly credible political leader of Samar – because anyway my idol Eddie could no longer reenter politics while he is an Associate Justice or member of the Supreme Court to which he was appointed in 2007.

Word reached Catbalogan that some custodians arrogated the ownership of the threshers unto themselves and made money out of the rentals for the use of the machines.  The suspicion may not be true, but this can be erased only if there will be a clear public accounting of the actual use of both the machines and the proceeds from rentals for use thereof.  Having been given to the barangay units, or to an association, the money earned from the rentals should have been turned over to the barangay treasurer or the association treasurer and this such treasurer should also keep a public record of his or her accounting of the money.  Where no money was made in payment, it was in terms of “takal” of palay threshed.

A rice mill more than a decade ago was acquired by a cooperative in an interior southern barangay of Samar, from a bank loan obtained by the cooperative operating in the village.  For a short period of time, that rice mill kept running and the proceeds went to the cooperative, as its legitimate owner.  Not long after that heyday, the village chieftain claimed personal ownership of the equipment and since then kept for his own personal use the financial gains from operating it, according to complaining co-op members, mostly women, who until now continuously fail to reclaim the rice mill.  Could that village be Bulao in Basey?

A rural workers association obtained a loan but an agriculturist, using technical deception, became owner and user of the project for which the loan was released, and now, the borrower members do not want to assume the repayment obligations.  They said, they never for once gained anything from that loan and the project.  This same agriculturist used a grant for a fishing project that was supposed to be credited to the efforts of a group of island fishermen.  When fish harvest time came, the islanders were told to back off. The agriculturist and those working for him eventually became private owners of that fishing project.