EDITORIAL - Missing persons

Another mystery, another case of missing persons. Why do scandals hounding the administration end up with key personalities skipping town? In the case of former election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, the government claims ignorance of his whereabouts, and he may never be seen again. In the case of former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn "Jocjoc" Bolante and his former boss Luis Lorenzo, the government presumably still knows where they are and can summon them back to the country. But that seems unlikely.

Garcillano is widely believed to be "Garci" — the man whose phone conversations with someone who sounded like President Arroyo were tapped and recorded. The recordings, if authentic and corroborated by certain individuals particularly Garcillano, indicate vote rigging in the 2004 presidential race. But Garcillano left the country when the scandal broke; his last known stop was Singapore. His disappearance has not stopped the President’s critics from setting up a "citizens’ congress" — originally called a "people’s court" but renamed in an effort to avoid being branded a kangaroo court. The fact-finding effort is sure to be one-sided and is unlikely to come up with anything new, but the effort is a sign of public desperation for the truth.

That desperation will grow with every controversy that is left unresolved. In the case of Bolante and Lorenzo, they need to shed light on the use of P800 million intended for the purchase of fertilizers by the Department of Agriculture. The Senate is investigating the disbursement of the funds shortly before the elections in May last year. DA and budget department documents reportedly show that about 15 congressmen, including those representing districts without farmlands, received fertilizer funds amounting to P3 million to P5 million each. The congressmen have denied receiving the funds.

Did Bolante and Lorenzo act on their own? If only to dispel suspicions that responsibility for the fund disbursements goes all the way up to the highest levels of government, Malacañang should be initiating efforts to know the truth. Instead Palace officials have announced that it is better for Bolante to just remain abroad. When the government’s answer to controversies is to make people disappear, those searching for truth are left to fill in the missing pieces.