'Office of the President won't escape culpability in fertilizer fund scam, NBN mess'

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Richard Gordon yesterday said the Office of the President (OP) would not escape culpability in the fertilizer fund scam and the national broadband network deal controversy.

Gordon, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, said his panel was working on the recommendations for the two issues that the Upper Chamber investigated and would soon come out with the committee reports.

He said his committee had finished the report on the fertilizer fund scam but he kept on revising it in order to be fair.

“We’re not delaying it. We will have it signed by the members. Lahat may tama. Presidente hanggang sa baba, pero yung karamihan mapa-plunder (Everyone would be hit. From the President down, but most will be hit with plunder). From the top, from the DBM (Department of Budget and Management),” Gordon said over radio station dwIZ.

He said the Office of the President was also implicated in the report of then Blue Ribbon committee chairman Sen. Joker Arroyo.

“We have suggestions there, you’ll find out when it comes out,” Gordon said in Filipino.

He said one of the recommendations is to charge former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante with plunder.

Bolante was the alleged architect of the scam that supposedly diverted the fertilizer funds to the campaign kitty of President Arroyo in 2004.

Gordon said he was also working on the committee report for the controversial NBN deal between the government and the Chinese firm ZTE Corp.

Asked whether the Office of the President would also be implicated, Gordon said: “Palagay ko (I suppose so).”