The Department of Agriculture (DA) assures fertilizer suppliers and merchants in Ilocos region that they will be paid in full within the week for the P100-million worth of fertilizers they provided to rice farmers via the voucher system under the agency’s rice program.

DA Assistant Secretary for Regional Operations Arnel de Mesa said a total of P22 million has been settled as of December 13, 2021, while the remaining claims are being processed by the DA Regional Field Office (RFO) 1.

“We apologize for the minor setback and inconvenience in our payment commitments to fertilizer merchants and distributors due to a glitch in our system, as a result of the additional documentary requirement,” de Mesa said.

“It was necessary to ensure that there is no duplication in the payout of vouchers to legitimate dealers, who participated in the DA’s rice fertilizer subsidy program that provided a P2,000 fertilizer voucher for farmers planting inbred rice varieties, and P3,000 for those planting hybrid rice,” he added.

For his part, DA-RFO 1 Director Nestor Domenden said that based on their initial investigation a fertilizer merchant submitted incomplete requirements that affected the total voucher claims worth P98 million.

“The payment for the whole lot was supposedly ready last December 3, 2021, but was returned for further vetting because one of the merchants failed to follow the claims process,” Domenden said.

He added that they will meet with merchants within the week to discuss the automated procedure in filing their payments to avoid future delays. ### (DA StratComms)