'Senators should be more prepared for Jocjoc'

MANILA, Philippines – Senators were apparently less prepared than former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante when they grilled him over the P728-million fertilizer scam.

“Sad to say, Bolante was more ready for the grilling rather than the senators who were to interrogate him,” said Sen. Panfilo Lacson.

Sen. Joker Arroyo, previous chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee that conducted the probe into the scam in the 13th Congress, also noted that senators presented fewer witnesses and evidence to prove the anomaly.

“You can’t establish your case with the testimony of the opposing side. He should have been confronted with evidence and documents,” Arroyo said.

He said evidence must be gathered so that senators would not face a blank wall once a resource person, like Bolante, denied all allegations flatly.

Arroyo and former senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr., then chairman of the Senate agriculture committee, recommended the prosecution of Bolante and even President Arroyo for the fertilizer fund mess.

Looking meek and calm, Bolante, observers said, was able to put one over the senators who had to raise their voices during the investigation but ended up frustrated with his answers.

Earlier, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan, Senators Alan Peter Cayetano, Manuel Roxas II and Miriam Defensor-Santiago said it was just proper to give Bolante a chance to air his side, “but no one believed him anyway.”

Pimentel said Bolante could not possibly clear Mrs. Arroyo because the funds were huge and given mostly to her allies.

Cayetano said the hearing was still productive because after 10 hours, “nobody believed Bolante.” Senators stressed that it was impossible for Bolante to cause the release of such huge amount of money without the President’s knowledge.

“My personal assessment is that his testimony is hard to swallow, to stomach. First of all, he said the President did not know about the release of funds, that is hard to believe because we know the President as a micromanager,” Roxas said.

But he and Santiago admitted that Bolante carefully prepared his testimony.

“He had been coached to be cool. He was so polished. It’s a sign that their story was carefully prepared,” Roxas said.

Santiago said the hearing was not useless because the public was able to see the demeanor of the witness.

Magsaysay, who was at the hearing last Thursday, said the public must not be taken by Bolante’s seemingly “convincing” claim of innocence.

Senators said investigation of the case in the 13th Congress was held for four months with over 40 witnesses, more than 3,000 pages of documentation and a 41-page committee report.

A journalist, Marlene Esperat, was also killed for her crusade against the program.

The funds were allegedly released to 105 congressmen, 53 governors and 23 mayors.

Meanwhile, Isabela Rep. Giorgidi Aggabao urged senators to wrap up their inquiry into the alleged fertilizer scam and leave the matter to the Ombudsman.

Aggabao said there was nothing new in Bolante’s revelations that were not brought out in the previous Senate committee hearings when he was still at large.

He said he could not see the point in continuing the probe when most of the information given by Bolante was already obtained before he returned to the country.

Bolante lost his asylum plea before a federal court in Kenosha, Wisconsin where he was held for two years for immigration violations.

In a related development, two of the 15 Isabela local officials reported to have been recipients of the so-called fertilizer fund denied getting P2 million or any amount from the fund.

Echague Mayor Leoncio Kiat and former Gamu mayor Alfredo Barkley both denied the DA gave the amount for the 2004 polls expenses.

Ifugao Gov. Teddy Baguilat denied reports that he received P5 million.

Nueva Vizcaya Rep. Carlos Padilla said that as a matter of parliamentary courtesy, the House should let the Senate first finish its probe into the so-called fertilizer scam before beginning its own investigation.

Padilla said the P728-million fund is only the “tip of the iceberg” and that the actual amounts could reach P2.8 billion. – With Charlie Lagasca