Senators yesterday said the $658-million fund from frozen Swiss bank accounts of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos awarded by the Supreme Court to the Philippine government must be channelled to other productive uses aside from land reform.

In a press briefing, administration Senator Ramon B. Magsaysay, Jr. said Congress may pass a law "redefining" provisions in the Presidential decree creating the Presidential Commission on good Government (PCGG) as well as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law mandating that the alleged ill-gotten wealth be used solely for the land reform program.

Mr. Magsaysay told reporters part of the money may be used for agricultural and fisheries modernization. One program that can benefit from the Marcos wealth is a "supply chain" project designed by Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo, Jr., he said.

"Secretary Lorenzo has a good model of a supply chain project wherein hundreds of thousands of vegetable and high-value [crop] farmers, and even fish and meat farms, will be able to improve their take-home pay," the Senate agriculture and food committee chairman explained.

"So we have to look at the issue of productive use of part of this so-called Marcos wealth and put it in use so that our farmers, over 70% of them (may benefit). The consumers will also benefit because you will attain certain quality and price competitiveness, may be even more competitive than imported products," he added.

Mr. Magasaysay estimated the project to cost no more than P2 billion.

Opposition Senator John H. Osmeña, meanwhile, bared his opposition to any move to fund the agrarian reform program using Marcos wealth, saying the amount should instead be turned over to government coffers.

"Marami na tayong perang nasayang d'yan sa agrarian reform program. Huwag nating dagdagan 'yung nasayang (So much money has been lost in the agrarian reform program. Let's not add any further)," Mr. Osmeña told a separate press briefing.

Mr. Osmeña said he will move to amend the law if the amount will be turned over to the PCGG.

For her part, Senator Teresa Aquino Oreta said she will file a bill setting aside 14% of the $658-million fund to address the country's education woes.

In particular, the proposed measure will ease the lack of 49,000 teachers, 24 million textbooks, 44,000 classrooms, and 4.8 million desks in public schools.
"This proposal in meant to stop dead on its tracks any possible Palace maneuver, as being schemed by (Finance Secretary Jose Isidro F. Camacho), to use the unexpected windfall to pay off our debts or narrow the deficit," Ms. Oreta said in a statement.

The opposition lawmaker warned Malacañang that it should first seek congressional approval before diverting the fund to other uses such as anti-poverty programs, as well as compensations for alleged Marcos human rights victims as earlier ruled by the Hawaiian Supreme Court.

The House has vowed to speed the passage of a bill awarding part of the ill-gotten wealth to human rights claimants. The Senate version is still pending at the committee level.