EDITORIAL - Perks of the job

Corruption is a two-way affair. If fertilizer funds ended up in the wrong hands during the 2004 presidential race, it was partly because of the complicity of the recipients. Who those recipients are should be disclosed by the one who distributed the fertilizer subsidy, Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante. Published reports said among the recipients of the P728-million allocation were lawmakers representing cities in Metro Manila where there are no farmlands.

The lawmakers were reportedly among 105 members of the House of Representatives, 52 provincial governors, a vice governor and 23 municipal mayors who were listed by Bolante as “proponents” in a letter he sent to Malacañang dated Feb. 2, 2004 — three months before the general elections — in which he asked for the release of the P728-million fertilizer subsidy. The agriculture undersecretary must have enjoyed unusual clout at Malacañang; the money was released the next day. Each “proponent” received amounts ranging from P3 million to P5 million, according to the list. Some of those on the list have denied receiving the money. Others said they received a letter from Bolante notifying them about the funds, which never came.

Several of those on the list have left Congress and joined the executive branch as Cabinet members and agency heads. The Commission on Audit reported that many of the recipients bought liquid fertilizer that was overpriced by up to 1,500 percent.

Bolante has vowed to tell the truth, but skeptics doubt that he would break the code of silence that has been institutionalized in this administration. At best he would find the appropriate whitewashing agency and keep the level of responsibility as low as possible when pressed to identify who authorized the release of the P728 million.

Bolante was helped along by the recipients, who were surely aware that there was something anomalous in the release of such amounts just three months before the elections. As in the distribution of P500,000 in hard cash in brown paper bags at Malacañang to congressmen and governors, the recipients of the fertilizer funds observed the code of omerta after the scandal erupted. They probably thought the money was just among the perks of the job, and the fuss would eventually go away, like chicken pox. It hasn’t. This cavalier attitude toward the use of public funds shows the rot in Philippine politics. Bolante could pave the way for reforms by coming clean, or he could make the rot worse.