Senate orders Joc-joc’s arrest

By Angie M. Rosales

12/04/2008

Senators yesterday again ordered the arrest of former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-joc” Bolante, along with the withdrawal of the chamber’s security personnel detailed to him, placing him under detention, this time at the Senate’s premises.

Blue ribbon committee chairman Sen. Richard Gordon yesterday announced the consensus reached by senators on the “fate” of Bolante, following observations that the alleged architect in the P728-million fertilizer fund scam had been reportedly lying or giving contradictory statements in the last three public hearings.

“We will be issuing a warrant of arrest because of the contempt, because of the continuous evasiveness, contradictions and lies perpetrated by Bolante upon the Senate in its investigations,” he told reporters at a briefing following a caucus with panel members.

The warrant, duly approved by 11 panel members, was signed Wednesday evening by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.

“He will be detained here. He will now have a chance to purge himself or to tell the truth in the next hearings, after which the Senate will

watch his demeanor or his answers and then we can call another meeting, after that if he decides to go straight and narrow,” Gordon stressed.

Senators, in agreeing to the proposition of opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson to cite Bolante in contempt and effectively served with an arrest warrant, noted eight instances where the former DA undersecretary was found to be “lying” as other witnesses and official records contradicted his claims.

“Sen. (Rodolfo) Biazon, for example stated there was a continuous stream of lies from the very time he was investigated. He was summoned, he was subpoenaed, and he kept changing his stories, for example when he went to US, his visa was cancelled. If he really wanted to come back he could have come back but yet he asked for asylum,” Gordon said.

Clearly, he added, there were indications that there was an attempt to thwart the investigation.

Senators also took note of Bolante’s assertions owing only to the downloading of the funds to the regional field units (RFUs), which were negated as well by other witnesses, particularly by his own underlings, as well as his claim on presidential appointments to the DA and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), bank accounts and lost passport.

Also, it was gathered from the blue ribbon chairman that contrary to the claim made by Bolante he lost his passport when he arrived at the airport last Oct. 28, this does not seem to be the case, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The committee was told through a letter from the DFA dated Nov. 27, that “the name Jocelyn Isada Bolante does not appear in the department’s lost and stolen passport database.”

“Also, I reported (to my colleagues) that Bolante has six security men from the police force (Police Security and Protection Office), based on the report made to me by the Senate’s legal counsel. That’s why we’re now ordering to removed him from the protective security. He was given security on allegations that there’s threat to his life. We’re just wasting government money (by having two different security forces look after him),” he said.

“And he also lied to us because in the last hearing, he asked that he be freed from the protective custody (of the Senate) when in fact he had hired bodyguards,” Gordon pointed out.

Gordon also told reporters that a number of personalities who could provide link as to the actual source of money supposedly used in perpetrating the scam or those purported to have acted as “financiers” are to be issued with subpoenas.

Senate probers also moved to expand the coverage of the ongoing inquiry into fertilizer fund scam, to the include the murder case of the purported actual whistleblower in the misuse of farmers’ funds, Marlene Esperat, who was also the first to file graft charges against Bolante, among others.

“We also agreed that we will investigate the Esperat case. We can motu propio do that,” Gordon said.

Esperat initially exposed an alleged illegal procurement of P432-million worth of fertilizers.

In 2003, Esperat filed a graft complaint against Bolante, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, Lorenzo, and other officials of the Department of Agriculture.

Esperat, a resident Ombudsman in Central Mindanao, claimed that the fertilizer distributed under the P432-million Ginintuang Masaganang Ani program in 2003 were overpriced, the bidding was rigged and procurement was awarded to disqualified bidders.

Esperat was gunned down at her home in Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat, by an assassin on March 24, 2005, in front of her children.

Also yesterday, the Senate blue ribbon committee found out that technical malversation might have been committed in the implementation of the DA program in 2004.

Gordon said there are documents that would prove that technical malversation was committed insofar as the implementation of the DA’s Farm Input-Farm Implements (FI-FI) program is concerned.

“The Saro (special allotment release order) states clearly that the fund is intended for farm inputs. But it was used to purchase items such as tractors and shredders, which are not included in the definition of a farm input. This just shows that there was technical malversation of funds,” he said.

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