Abad on the fertilizer scam

I am writing to you in response to Mr. Jarius Bondoc’s opinion piece “Noynoy, Abad among 2004 fertilizer scam recipients; GMA exonerated,” which was published in The Philippine STAR today (May 16). Mr. Bondoc’s treatment of the fertilizer scam issue — where he refers to me and President Benigno S. Aquino III as fund recipients under the scam — is tragically misinformed, particularly since my name and that of the President’s have long been cleared in the course of previous Senate investigations on the scam. 

If you recall, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee and the Committee on Agriculture and Food under the respective leadership of then-Senators Joker P. Arroyo and Ramon B. Magsaysay Jr. had concluded their joint investigation of the fertilizer fund scam in 2006. Prior to this, I was given the opportunity to testify that my name was included in the list of the fund recipients without my knowledge, and that neither I nor my office had ever requested funds for fertilizers or farm inputs. Furthermore, no actual releases were made to my district, and neither I nor the President received any of the funds that were later distributed among a number of lawmakers in the course of the scam.

The joint committee later issued Committee Report No. 54 last March 1, 2006 which acknowledged the verity of our position: that my name and President Aquino’s — who was then representing the district of Tarlac — were used to lend legitimacy to the implementation of the fertilizer scam. To directly quote the findings of the investigative report:

“Ninth, Undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante cunningly, wittingly listed 105 congressmen, 53 governors and 23 mayors to justify the immediately release of the fund. It specifies uniform amounts, regardless of which congressional districts or local units the proponents represent, whether the same are rice or corn-producing LGUs or not. Bolante is not even mindful that the locality or legislative district from where the proponent came from is part of the farm-absent Metro Manila. From this list, it can be deduced that it was an intended flawed program using public funds. 

“Tenth, Bolante made the list attractive by including a number of politicians as proponents, but in truth and in fact, their names were just used to lend credence to the project. And when asked to explain, the DA cannot even justify where it was appropriated, by whom and who disbursed it. Again, it was a manifestation of pure scam.”

It must be noted that I have already addressed this issue through a letter to The Philippine Daily Inquirer, in response to an editorial piece that they had also just recently published. In much the same way as Mr. Bondoc did, the Inquirer editorial associated President Aquino’s name and mine with the fertilizer fund scam, despite the fact that neither of us was involved in carrying out the scheme. My letter was published today, 16 May 2014, should you wish to refer to it.

While I hold the highest regard for The Philippine STAR and its work of bringing key political issues to the public consciousness, I am disturbed that Mr. Bondoc would write a piece that holds great potential to mislead your readers. I find it surprising as well that despite his background as a journalist, Mr. Bondoc seems to have failed to do the necessary research on an investigation that has already been concluded years ago.

At a time when the Philippine bureaucracy is under greater public scrutiny — due mostly to the PDAF scam and the current investigation on it — I believe that it behooves us all to remain truthful in our speech. And as we further pursue our focused campaign for good governance, I wish to reassure you and your readers that the Aquino administration will continue to work towards greater transparency, accountability, and integrity in the use of public funds. 

I respectfully request that this letter be published in full for the benefit of your readers. Thank you very much. — FLORENCIO B. ABAD, Secretary, Department of Budget and Management