ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro wants the Department of Agrarian Reform to examine the use of P909.5 million in special funds for implementation under the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) in 2021.
Castro said she is hoping DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III, a former Abono party-list lawmaker, would rectify the mistakes committed by the previous administration.
She disclosed the Commission on Audit report citing DAR’s failure to identify the program’s recipients — rebel returnees.
DAR was asking for a P15.85-billion budget for 2023.
According to Castro, COA’s report from pages 144 to 151 showed that DAR received P909.5 million sourced from the 2021 General Appropriations Act, of which 59.4 percent of P540.16 million was obligated and distributed in the implementation of the programs and activities to support the NTF-ELCAC.
COA flagged DAR for various deficiencies in the report of its 11 offices, she said.
Moreover, the department failed to prepare work and financial plans such as the provision of farm inputs and preparations for the issuance of the certificates of land ownership award.
Aklan Rep. Teodorico Haresco Jr., author of DAR’s proposed budget, denied the department was allocated special funds for the NTF-ELCAC.
But Castro maintained that DAR must investigate the COA report.