EDITORIAL- Newfound zeal

This should make the Office of the Ombudsman stop wondering why several of its key officials are being targeted for replacement by the Aquino administration. Seven years after fertilizer funds were diverted and six years after the P728-million anomaly was uncovered, the Office of the Ombudsman has finally ordered the filing of plunder cases in court against the agriculture officials tagged as key players in the scam.

The wait had taken so long that principal suspect Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante, agriculture undersecretary during the Arroyo administration, managed to flee from a congressional investigation, disappear for years and then return. Bolante’s boss, former agriculture secretary Luis “Cito” Lorenzo, also skipped town reportedly after divesting himself of his holdings in his family’s businesses. For several years Lorenzo was occasionally spotted in Washington before he also surfaced a few months ago in Manila.

Also facing a plunder case is former agriculture assistant secretary Ibarra Poliquit. Charges of graft and technical malversation were also ordered filed against four former congressmen, nine regional agriculture directors and six private individuals.

The charges stem from the alleged diversion of the fertilizer funds to the presidential campaign of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in March 2004. The four former congressmen were among the politicians identified as recipients of the funds even if there were no farms or agricultural workers in the districts that they represented. The fund diversions were unearthed a year later, compounding allegations of vote-rigging in the presidential race in favor of Arroyo involving former elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.

It’s not clear if Lorenzo surfaced because he thought the fertilizer scam was dead and buried. Filipinos can take comfort in the thought that it’s better late than never, and that the fertilizer scam has finally been dug up from its burial ground.

The timing of the order to file the cases inevitably raised suspicion that the newfound   zeal   of anti-graft prosecutors had everything to do with the looming trial of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, who was impeached by the House of Representatives for sitting on major corruption cases involving officials of the Arroyo administration. Gutierrez inhibited herself from the resolution on the fertilizer scam, with her spokesman explaining that the case was part of the articles of impeachment against her. Perhaps the nation will soon see other cases that have gathered dust in her office being resurrected.