Drilon signed resolution on fund release—DAR

Philippines
December 8, 2006 4:29am CST
THE resolution that allows the supposed “illegal release” of funds for the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) has no less than Senate President Franklin Drilon as one of its signatories, the Department of Agrarian Reform said Tuesday. A resolution by the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council signed in 1988 delegated to the PARC executive committee the power to allocate funds for CARP, the department said. Council Resolution No. 88-9-2, signed after the enactment of Republic Act 6657, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, defined the functions and responsibilities of the PARC, the executive committee and the council secretariat. The resolution was initialed by members of PARC, including Drilon who was then the Secretary of Labor and Employment. Other signatories to the resolution were Philip Juico, who was secretary of agrarian reform; Commission on Audit chairman Guillermo Carague, who was secretary of budget and management; Jose Concepcion, who was secretary of trade and industry; and economist Solita Monsod, who was socioeconomic planning secretary. The resolution was issued to address the need “to spell out and delineate the functions and responsibilities of the PARC, its excom and secretariat.” Under the resolution, the execom was empowered to “approve for the PARC, fund allocation/programming of the agrarian reform fund among agencies mandated to implement components of the program.” Drilon had earlier questioned the authority of the excom to disburse funds from the Marcos wealth obtained by the department. An official of DAR, who asked not to be named, debunked Drilon’s claims that there was “deception” in the release of the P20.5 billion Marcos wealth. “If that is illegal, that should be illegal since the time of Cory (Aquino),” the official said. The official said the same resolution was used to disburse funds for CARP during the terms of Presidents Ramos and Estrada. No one questioned the disbursements. “No other resolution from the PARC was passed amending or scrapping Resolution 89-9-2, which is still being used as a basis for fund disbursements,” the official said
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