August 23, 2010

Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao tops Philippine corn producers

According to the Philippines' Commission on Audit, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was the top corn producer for the year 2009.

ARMM has distributed more than 60% of lands that are supposed to be given to farmers by 2014 under the agrarian reform program. But the COA report also found deficiencies in the financial records of the region, including some PHP8 million (US$177,856) in unliquidated cash advances.

In its 2009 report on ARMM, the COA said the region produced 703,532 tonnes of white corn and 269,691 tonnes of yellow corn. "This figure placed the ARMM in rank number one in the country in terms of corn production," the COA said.

It attributed this to the efforts of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries-ARMM in providing facilities, equipment and training to farmers. It said the department established a bio mixing plant in Maguindanao, a Farmers Field School in Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, and Corn Husk Utilization Handicraft trainings in the same two provinces. Bags of corn seeds were also distributed, along with five farm tractors and two corn shellers.

"Through the effort and support of DAF-ARMM, this had redounded to the benefits of the corn farmers for their livelihood, region and to the entire country. The amount infused to these inputs (facilities, equipment and training) resulted to the maximum outputs/results in term of financial benefits and others," it said.

As for the Department of Agrarian Reform in the ARMM, the COA said that in 2009, it distributed 3,367 hectares of agricultural land to 1,532 farmer beneficiaries. This means that as of as of December 31, 2009, the DAR-ARMM had disposed of 64%, or 224,193 hectares, of the 350,646 hectares it intends to distribute by June 30, 2014.

The DAR Lanao del Sur posted the biggest accomplishment, distributing 1,931.9 hectare. Tawi-Tawi posted no accomplishment due to management takeover and the transition period, which hampered operations and reporting schedules.

But the COA also found problems in the ARMM's financial records. For instance, the cash in bank-local currency accounts of several departments were found unreliable because there were not updated bank reconciliation statements at the end of 2009. The accounts contain over PHP18 million (US$399,805).

The COA also found that there were PHP8.755 million (US$194,450) in unliquidated cash advances to officers and employees as of Dec. 31, 2009. There were also delays in the remittance of personal and government shares to the Government Service Insurance System and to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.