Farmer leader Felix Paz of Bicol has warned that the Arroyo government might use funds for agricultural rehabilitation and calamity mitigation to bankroll the electoral campaign of its allies next year.

Paz, who also chairs the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas-Bikol (KMP-Bikol) and sits in the KMP national council, suspects that there is a deliberate effort to overstate the damage wrought by Tropical Storm “Ondoy” and Typhoon “Pepeng” to justify huge fund releases.

The worst thing that can happen, Paz argued, is for both the funds for calamity mitigation and rural rehabilitation to be shanghaied to ensure the victory of Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro.

Official government statistics point to the damage caused by Ondoy and Pepeng to breaching the P10 billion mark, with the farm sector sustaining more than R6 billion in losses.

This early, he revealed, Malacañang is already propping up the demolition of expected presidential candidates, from Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to Sen. Francis Escudero and several others, with special operations units fanning out to buy information and documents to pin down the rivals of Teodoro. Escudero hails from Sorsogon.

“Congress and the Senate had already proposed P10 billion for the rehabilitation of affected areas and the Department of Agriculture (DA) has already asked for a higher budget next year. But considering the track record of this regime and 2010 being an election year, we fear that these funds may again be used to bankroll the administration's campaign,” Paz said.

“Up till now nobody has been held accountable for the numerous scandals and scams this administration has been involved in. So what is keeping it from doing a repeat of the P728-million fertilizer fund scam in 2004 and the P135-million vegetable scam in 2007? In 2010, maybe it will be a disaster fund scam," added Paz.

“It has been a modus operandi of this regime to always use the plight of the poor particularly us peasants to justify the release of funds for corruption and to gorge the campaign kitty of the regime. So we are asking everybody to be very vigilant against this because the Arroyo administration will once again try to fry us in our own lard," the KMP leader stressed.

“It would be best if the current crop of presidentiables will make a definite and strong stance against this and to ensure that they will do everything to punish those who have enriched themselves using the people's money,” Paz argued.