Joc-Joc's caper, not a funny joke

More than two years absence on self-exile spent most under detention in USA, USec. Joc-Joc Bolante has resurrected. Like a procession returning to the church of origin, Joc-Joc came back home a deportee, after his failed last card for political asylum abroad.

Unlike Gen. Douglas MacArthur's fulfilled "I shall return" promise, Bolante's coming home against his volition, stirs mixed emotions. To those interested in the P728 M fertilizer scam, they are eager beavers as the Senate for its final accounting. To the actual recipients of P3 M to P5 M doleouts for the 2004 elections who could not liquidate, they feel uneasy like skaters on thin ice.

Some of the latter are hopeful that Joc-Joc's return will clear their names. One is Ex-Cong. Antonio Yapha whose Kasosyo Foundation was linked to the Bolante "gifts" through the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani program of the Dept. of Agriculture. There may be others in Cebu who had received the election "manna" (as in "hulog gikan sa langit"), except that they may find it hard to account for.

Per Philippine Star News Service report, "105 admin lawmakers received "fertilizer funds" in reference to House solons receiving P3 M to P5 M that Bolante listed as "proponents" for the release of P728 M. Leading "proponents" were then Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. and now Speaker Prospero Nograles, followed by recognizable names of the lower house. They included districts without agri projects as in Makati, Manila, or Quezon City. Other class "proponents" were 52 governors, one vice-governor, and 23 mayors. The 52 reportedly got P5 M each.

To recall, when the Bolante caper came out a very hot issue leading to the Senate inquiry up to issuance of its arrest order, there were intimations of some donees returning their "gifts" like hot potatoes. Certainly, many could have already spent theirs in the 2004 elections, and/or stashed them as nest eggs.

But wait, while people are lulled and getting used to the P728M figure, here comes the bigger "bombshell" from former Sol-Gen. Frank Chavez mentioning P3.3 B as the accurate people's money lost. He hinted that the P728 M bottled over-prized fertilizers pale from the gigantic and accumulative funds robbed in the guise of agri excuses before Bolante's time.

Again, public perception could be right that given the rich chances at his reach and control in dispensing ginormous fortune, could Joc-Joc have had resisted the tempting blandishments of wealth in his hands without filling also his own pockets with some millions?

It isn't intriguing that Joc-Joc could not have been so liberal with the people's money, as if throwing assorted candies to street kids, as most "trapos" do, without being first kind to himself. There must have been somebody up there - oh, no, not God - as a martinet manipulating him like a robot just to throw away money to pre-chosen non-beggars.

Before the dark curtains fell on Joc-Joc, his was a sunshiny disposition, ever-smiling, and apparently unflappable. And perfect for the role of gift-dispenser to the choice "trapos". One observer said that Joc-Joc did fit the shoes of a court jester of yore, that is, before the Senators and anti-administration rabid critics descended upon him over the fertilizer super scandal.

Somehow, one expected the intro of a joke now on the jester and capped by a dramatic punch line. There is none so far, except perhaps to further self-deprecate or virtually self-immolate himself as a sacrificial lamb in the face of the tragic turn of events, as most court jesters or circus clowns are bound to suffer.

But what could be more telling, should Joc-Joc make a sudden turn-around by spilling the beans, and making the revelation who is his martinet, and tell the whole truth about the fertilizer scam as his clinching non-funny punch line.

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