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Thursday, July 27, 2006
Ombuds assures probe on fertilizer scam 'is ongoing'
OMBUDSMAN Merceditas Gutierrez on Wednesday said investigations on the P728 million fertilizer fund involving former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante is moving but she wants it speeded up.
Gutierrez, in an ambush interview in Malacañang, said she formed a task force headed by Administrative Officer Arturo Melchor Carandang to expedite investigation of the case as more people are monitoring its development.
"Before, there was no task force created but this time I created a task force to speed up the investigation dahil kung (because if) more people are working on a case, especially kung marami ang (if many are) involved, we would need more people to investigate and work on it," she said.
She said there is no specific deadline however set for the resolution of the investigation.
"Wala naman talagang time frame iyan (We do not have a time frame for that) but we are trying our best to be able to finish the investigation but we have to thorough in our investigation. And after the fact-finding investigation, kung may (if there is a) recommendation for filing of charges, magko-conduct pa ng preliminary investigation (a preliminary investigation will be conducted). Iyun ang proseso sa aming opisina (that's the office procedure)," she added.
Gutierrez said it is not new for the Office of the Ombudsman to give special treatment especially if there are "high profile cases" involved.
She said she is aware that some senators are waiting for the resolution of the Ombudsman investigation to enable the filing of a case, particularly against Bolante, who was the alleged architect of the supposed diversion of the fertilizer fund to finance the presidential campaign of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
She said they have given the Senate an update on their investigation, assuring them that the inquiry is moving.
Gutierrez clarified that while Bolante is no longer with the government, the case is still under their jurisdiction as there are some incumbent government officials involved.
Malacañang said the government is prepared to provide security for Bolante should it be proven that he is included in the hit-list of the New People's Army (NPA).
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, for his part, said he has not heard of the report but regardless if it is Bolante or not, the government should protect its citizens against the NPA threat.
Ermita said Bolante might have just invoked the supposed threat to bolster his request for asylum but he is not sure if the threat or the hit-list exists.
Bolante was arrested early this month in Los Angeles in the US and had been detained since. Reports said he is now seeking political asylum in the US.
Meanwhile, senators dismissed the idea that Bolante would be granted political asylum because of the alleged NPA threat.
Senator Franklin Drilon said there is not enough basis for Bolante to be hunted down by the NPA.
The senator said the alleged persecution from the rebel group is just an alibi to block any effort to bring him back to the Philippines for being the alleged architect of the fertilizer fund scam.
"His wrongdoing is his failure to explain the P728 million fertilizer scam, the fund should have been given to the farmers but it seems he maneuvered it and it went to other things," Drilon said.
Senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr., chairman of the Senate committee on agriculture and food which investigated the fertilizer scam, believed that the US Government will dismiss the petition for political asylum of Bolante.
"If the US will grant his petition on this basis (NPA threat), then the US will receive a number of applications from farmers or soldiers who are fighting the NPA," he emphasized.
Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, for her part, believed that Bolante, who along with former agriculture secretary Luis Lorenzo and other officials of the Department of Agriculture (DA), have a pending plunder case in the Office of the Ombudsman upon a Senate recommendation, will be brought back to the Philippines through extradition.
"He will likely get extradited to the Philippines," Santiago said as she pointed out that Bolante is being implicated in corruption charges in the Philippines.
"So if a person is just fleeing from his country but is implicated in certain corruption cases in that country, the US will turn him in. The US does not want to be known as a haven for crooks," Santiago said. (JMR/REC/Sunnex)
(July 27, 2006 issue)
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