North Cot gov chides Piñol, belies accusations

DAVAO CITY — The provincial government of Cotabato on Wednesday belied claims made by Agriculture DA Secretary Emmanuel Piñol that it was to blame for the delayed implementation on the Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) program in the province.

In a statement on Wednesday, North Cotabato Governor Emmylou “Lala” Taliño-Mendoza said the fund used for the SAAD program was allotted in 2015 and not in 2016 because the source of funds downloaded to the Province of Cotabato was a continuing fund from the 2015 budget of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

“The allegation made by the DA secretary that it took two years for the Province of Cotabato to implement the SAAD project is misleading,” Mendoza said.

She said the DA downloaded the funds to the Province of Cotabato only in December 2016. “Thereafter, the necessary and regular requisites had to be complied with such as the needed revision of the MOA to conform to its objective,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza clarified the Province of Cotabato recorded a poverty incidence of 34.5 percent in 2015 and not 47 percent as mentioned earlier by Piñol. She added that the figures are based on the Poverty Incidence 2015 conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Mendoza emphasized that when the 2012 full year official poverty statistics report of the National Statistics and Coordinating Board (NSCB) had ranked second the Province of Cotabato in terms of poverty incidence of families, a Resolution No. 227 dated May 20, 2014 was immediately issued by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Cotabato, to manifest protest and disagreement to the report.

“All of these requirements were completed only in August 2017, the governor said, hence, it would be factual and correct to state that the implementation of the SAAD project commenced in August 2017 and not in December 2016,” she added.

“Its implementation, therefore, did not go beyond the prescribed period,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza and Piñol’s row on the SAAD program stemmed from a news report accusing the agriculture secretary of allegedly using DA resources to boost the candidacies of his daughter, Dr. Krista Piñol-Solis, who is running as board member in the second district; his siblings Socrates Piñol who is running for Vice Governor, Efren Piñol who is running as congressman for 2nd district; Bernardo Piñol Jr., for Kidapawan City Mayor and Joselito Piñol who is running for Vice Mayor of Mlang.