A LEGISLATOR urged President Arroyo on Wednesday to appoint a deputy Ombudsman in the Department of Agriculture (DA) who will serve as a tripwire against misdeeds as billions of pesos are heading the agency’s way.

Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Abraham Mitra of Palawan, chairman of the House agriculture committee, said Republic Act 6770, which organized the Office of the Ombudsman, empowers the President to appoint more deputy Ombudsmen in addition to the regular deputies for Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

One such deputy has been appointed for the military in 1990, and Mitra said one may be needed in the agriculture sector now “considering the fact that farm spending is now bigger than defense spending.”

On rice imports alone, he said, projected cost will reach P62 billion this year, an amount bigger than the Department of National Defense’s 2008 allocation of P51 billion, of which P49.1 billion will go to the Armed Forces.

On top of the rice import bill, the agency has P20.5 billion in Afma (Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act ) funds, P2.5  billion  in  “budgetary support” to DA-attached agencies, and P3.5 billion in regular agency funds—all of which are authorized in the 2008 national budget.

Mitra said Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap cannot watch over each and every transaction in a department with 12 attached agencies, 10 attached corporations, nine bureaus, and 14 regional field units.

“He is attending to so many urgent things right now, so as not to further burden him, why not create a  division of labor, in which Secretary Yap will  focus on the core function of the DA, which is food security, and appoint a watchdog whose ‘deterring presence’ alone can probably make all transactions above board?” Mitra said.

“Besides, his or her appointment will be pursuant to all the transparency initiatives of the President, moves which have won support from foreign agencies like the Millennium Challenge Corp. which has pledged more aid in this field,” he added.

With more funds rushed to the DA to shore up the sagging rice supply, Mitra said the appointment of a deputy Ombudsman would be a proactive move that would ensure that money is spent wisely.

Mitra said some Ombudsman personnel are already assigned at the DA, “but an Ombudsman detachment headed by a deputy Ombudsman will show that government means business in seeing to it that rice funds, like rice, are not wasted.”

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CIVIL-society and faith-based groups are considering Chief Justice Reynato Puno as a replacement for former President Corazon Aquino in their campaign to push for President Arroyo’s resignation.

LEADERS and representatives of various civil society, farmers, urban poor, labor and fishermen’s groups held the People’s Food Summit at the UP Diliman’s School of Labor and Industrial Relations (Solair) on Wednesday to tackle the issue of food security and come up with an alternative solution to the looming food crisis haunting the Philippines.

THE Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) elected Muslimin Sema as its new chairman on Tuesday in a move aimed at strengthening the fragile peace in Mindanao.

CHAIRMAN Jose Melo of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) hinted on Wednesday that poll automation in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) may not push through, as the commission is way behind its schedule to modernize the region’s August elections.

CHIEF Justice Reynato Puno has directed the Office of the Court Administrator to take action on the request of Steel Corp.  of the Philippines (SCP) to have its rehabilitation case transferred from Branch 2 of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Batangas City to any court in Metro Manila.

THE head of the antifraud and commercial crime division (AFCCD) of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) on Wednesday warned businessmen to obey intellectual property laws or else the government would run after them and even seize their goods.

A LEGISLATOR urged President Arroyo on Wednesday to appoint a deputy Ombudsman in the Department of Agriculture (DA) who will serve as a tripwire against misdeeds as billions of pesos are heading the agency’s way.