VINZONS, Camarines Norte --- It looks like a can of worms has been opened after the House Committee on Agrarian Reform started looking into House Resolution No. 317 filed by Rep. Liwayway Vinzons-Chato of the lone district of Camarines Norte that calls for an investigation into funds allegedly released by the DAR national office and ended into the hands of private persons.

        During a hearing conducted here, Mayor Oliver Ferrer of this town said he smelled something fishy when DAR asked him to liquidate funds for a project worth P300,000. The amount, he said, did not pass through his office so there was nothing to liquidate.

         When he checked with DAR he found out that it was Barangay-Captain Cecilia Heraldo of Bgy. Uno who secured the project from DAR, bypassing the municipal government.

        The signboard for the project, it was learned further, contained the names of couple Jay and Agnes Ang as project proponents. The couple denied it was they who asked that their names be printed on the signboard.

        Cecilia Ang told the committee during the inquiry here conducted last Sept. 16 that their names may have been there as a way of the residents’ grateful appreciation for their effort to bring the project into their barangay. Husband Jay explained that the funds were taken from the Bicol Care Program when he was Camarines Norte representative to the Bicol Regional Development Council.

        Contractor Edson Genildo of Bemkar Construction told the committee that it was Bgy. Captain Heraldo who instructed him to put the names of the Ang couple on the signboard. He disclosed that there were actually three projects that were allotted to the barangay: construction of line canal, a multi-purpose stage, and a day-care center in the total amount of P300,000.

        Undersecretary Narciso Nieto, to the surprise of many, said the P300,000 was intended for multi-purpose pavement, while the line canal and daycare were to be funded by local savings and that the barangay council pushed through with their intended project with no coordination with DAR. Nieto further made it clear that DAR does not allow names of private individuals to be posted on signboards indicating a government project.

        Mayor Ferrer added more interesting twists to the hearing when he revealed that SAMMS (Singi, Aguit-it, Matango, Manlucugan, Sabang) Multi-Purpose Cooperative was able to secure P5 million for a project. But according to DAR, P2.5 million of the amount was intended for Misamis Oriental in Mindanao. It was further disclosed that SAMMS Cooperative secured another P2 million which was in fact intended for the town of Sta. Elena, Camarines Norte.

        Committee Chair Rep. Edgar Valdez said that what they have discovered so far may only be a tip of the iceberg and that a deeper investigation should be in order.

        Rep. Vinzons-Chato noted that the inconsistencies and confusions uncovered had come at a time when Congress is deliberating on the implementing rules of the extended implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform program under the Arroyo administration.