‘Start anti-corruption drive with Bolante’

If the government is serious in its campaign against corruption, it should start revealing details of why former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn "Jocjoc" Bolante was taken into custody in the United States, Sen. Rodolfo Biazon said yesterday.

"The sincerity of the two governments to fight corruption now has the opportunity to be proven," said Biazon, chairman of the Senate committee on defense and national security.

Biazon said Bolante’s case is about graft and corruption, and it should serve as a test case for the recently launched joint campaign of the Philippines and the United States against corruption.

"Bolante’s case will test the sincerity of the governments of the Republic of the Philippines and the US to fight corruption in this country," he said.

Biazon disputed Bolante’s alleged claim that the New People’s Army (NPA) is after him — the reason Bolante has reportedly cited for seeking American protection.

"The threat from the NPA can be negated by protection from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police or even by a task force so that Jocjoc Bolante can come back to the country and help bring closure to the issue of the P2.372-billion fertilizer fund," Biazon said.

Bolante was taken into custody at the Los Angeles Airport for reasons purportedly for possession of a cancelled visa.

Facing arrest from the Senate, Bolante has been evading Philippine authorities since he was tagged as the mastermind of the P728-million fertilizer fund scam at the Department of Agriculture. The opposition has alleged that the fertilizer funds were diverted for use in the 2004 elections.

The war against corruption got a billion-peso boost Wednesday after the Philippines signed an agreement with the US for P1 billion in aid for use in curbing bureaucratic corruption.

The grant was approved and announced early last month by the US under the congressionally funded $1.5-billion Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) program to reward countries that govern well, Malacañang said.

President Arroyo last month put up a P1-billion counterpart fund to the US grant, boosting the government’s anti-corruption war chest to P2 billion.

The two-year, P1-billion Philippine initiative, which will be run by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), will strengthen the Office of the Ombudsman, the special prosecutor for corruption cases involving government officials and the Department of Finance (DoF) anti-graft programs in the Customs and Internal Revenue bureaus. — Christina Mendez