Welcome home, Joc-Joc

IT is not likely that Jocelyn ‘Joc-Joc’ Bolante will be arrested by government agents when he finally arrives in the country anytime this week after being deported from the U.S. (Some reports expect his arrival tomorrow at around 11 p.m. aboard a Northwest Airlines flight from Nagoya, Japan.)

This is because, no thanks to the Office of the Ombudsman, no case has yet to be filed against Bolante two and a half years after a Senate investigation found him to have masterminded the P728-million fertilizer fund scam, allegedly diverting the amount to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s presidential campaign in 2004.

Citing this reason, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez already declared last week that Bolante, a close confidante of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, is a “free man” as he won’t be facing arrest upon his return.

Only the Senate, through its sergeant-at-arms, is left to effect an arrest, although there are contentions being raised whether the warrant it issued against the former agriculture undersecretary on December 12, 2005 for refusing to appear before its hearings remains enforceable to this day. Bolante’s lawyer has in fact elevated the matter before the Supreme Court.

Insisting on its validity, Senate President Manuel Villar has recently instructed Gen. Jose Balajadia Jr., the upper chamber’s sergeant-at-arms, to implement the arrest order in anticipation of Bolante’s arrival tomorrow.

Lawyer Harry Roque, who had worked in the sidelines for Bolante’s deportation, maintains as well that the order of arrest was for contempt of the Senate as an institution and not pursuant to an arrest warrant issued by a judge.

“It matters not thus that the personalities that signed the order of arrest are no longer in the Senate,” said Roque. “It was the institution that was aggrieved and this fact alone should be a legal reason for the Senate’s Sergeant-at-Arms to proceed to arrest Bolante and to bring him to the Senate for the purpose of compelling himto testify in what the Senate has described as an’unfinished investigation’ until Bolante, the ‘architect of the scam,’ could be heard.”

Arrest or no arrest, Bolante, now that he is coming home, should however be made to answer the damning accusations against him in the report of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee and Committee on Agriculture on the fertilizer fund scam.

Read the Senate report here.

As a review, below are the main findings in the Senate’s 41-page report to illustrate why Bolante is the Senate’s “most wanted” man:

Ten Reasons Why the Fertilizer Issue is a Scam

• First, the Farm Inputs and Implements Program was non-existent. Nobody in the Department of Agriculture was aware of its existence. Not a single document in the files of the DA supported its existence.

• Second, the fertilizer fund was a single appropriation meant only for 2004. Its implementation in 2004 during the months of the election season is an indication of its intended purpose and illicit objective.

• Third, the design and implementation of the fertilizer fund scam manifested the height of scandalous corruption — gross overpricing of fertilizers range from almost 700 to 1,250 percent. Towable shredders and chippers were overpriced by as much as 331 percent while small shredders and chippers, by 206 percent.

• Fourth, the fertilizer fund was released in the months of February to May, the traditional harvest season in the country when fertilizers are not in use. The planting season begins only in November.

• Fifth, the fertilizer fund scam is haunted by ghost and questionable suppliers and deliveries. For instance, the registered business address of AKAME Marketing, the identified supplier of a substantial number of transactions in the P728-million fertilizer fund, could not be located. There were no documents to prove that Castle Rock Construction, which was awarded with multiple contracts, can engage or do business related to the trading of fertilizers. FESHAN Philippines, Inc., one of the largest suppliers, was originally a medical supplier that started to supply fertilizer only in 2004, its office address also non-existent.

• Sixth, there was gross disproportion between what was needed by the farmers and wasteful utilization of the farmers’ fund as shown by a document identifying the fertilizer requirements for 2003 submitted by Frisco Malabanan, GMA Rice Program director. The amount needed was only P28.613 million for the entire country compared to P2.806 billion released for 2004.

• Seventh, liquid foliar fertilizer, which is appropriate for ornamental plants, was supplied. Rice requires solid fertilizers which include urea, ammonium sulfate, ammophos, complete fertilizers, and muriate of potash, depending on the situation of the soil.

• Eighth, there was “double corruption” in that the wrong and overpriced kind of fertilizer for rice was even diluted with water.

• Ninth, Bolante cunningly, wittingly listed 105 congressmen, 53 governors and 23 mayors to justify the immediately release of the fund, specifying uniform amounts, regardless of which congressional districts or local government units the proponents represent, whether these were rice or corn-producing LGUs or not. Bolante even listed proponents from Metro Manila where farms are non-existent.

• Tenth, Bolante made the list attractive by including a number of politicians as proponents. In truth, however, their names were just used to lend credence to the project.

Recommendations

Having established strong probable criminal culpability, the Senate committees recommended the filing of criminal and administrative charges against the following DA officials:

• Bolante
• Secretary Luis Lorenzo
• Undersecretary Ibarra Poliquit
• Undersecretary Belinda Gonzales
• Assistant Secretary Jose Felix Montes

All five top officials, as well as all DA regional directors who “participated in the illegal transactions or dissipation of the P728-million fertilizer fund scam,” were recommended charged with violations of the Plunder Law and the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

It was also recommended that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo be held accountable for the “mismanagement of the fertilizer fund.” The report further said:

It bears knowing that a number of testimonies adduced during the hearings were that the fund was indeed used to assure her victory in the 2004 elections. Statements of lawyer Francisco Chavez, the various farmer organizations led by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, and the positive declaration of Secretary Emilia Boncodin that the President may have knowledge on the Bolante requests for fertilizer funds stand and remain uncontested in the legislative records.

Cognizant of the presidential immunity and respect accorded to the Chief Executive, the accusations against her in the fertilizer fund scam is (sic) so serious that it places (sic) the position of the Presidency in the balance. The Palace looks at the issue as a mere political tool. Its refusal to cooperate violates the spirit of democracy, promotes tyranny and breeds the ground for instability it has in fact stirred. Failure to disprove the charges, even resorting to shield those directly responsible for squandering taxpayers’ money, suggest her culpability and involvement in this unforgivable act made against our poor farmers. Her obvious indifference to examine the matter further and identify the irregularities surrounding the disbursement of the farmers’ fund is equivalent to breach of official duty by nonfeasance and inexcusable negligence of sworn obligation. In sum, the same may be labeled as betrayal of public trust in addition to the violations committed under the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and the Law on Plunder.

In the fertilizer fund scam, Undersecretary Bolante is the declared architect. He designed it. He was its brains. It was he who worked with the DBM for the immediate release of the fund. It was him who prepared and submitted names who would become the fertilizer fund’s proponents. It was Undersecretary Bolante who sent letters to various congressmen and local officials informing them of the availability of funds under the DA’s GMA Project. It was him who directed these officials to coordinate with his office to discuss all the requirements to facilitate the said project fund.

Undersecretary Bolante in the words of his then Chief of Staff, Ibarra Poliquit, had a hand in determining how the GMA Project fund works and will be spent. And that although the DA has a list of officials whose proposed projects” were to be funded by the fertilizer fund, Bolante was given the authority to drop them and replace them with others.