No joke, after a slew of confusing reports about his homecoming ‘architect’ Jocelyn ‘Joc Joc’ Bolante of fertilizer fund scam fame is back “to answer in the proper forum, any and all questions and baseless allegations” about the anomaly that defrauded Filipino farmer of at least PhP 728-M in aid that should have gone to bettering rural lives and feeding more Filipinos.
728-M in hard-earned taxpayers’ money that allegedly went instead to the pockets of pro-administration bets in the fraud-marred 2004 elections.
The man who exited from Northwest Airlines flight 71 at 10:38 last night did not look like the Joc Joc people remember from 2 or three years ago. The former agriculture undersecretary appeared to have lost considerable weight, was gaunt now is now has salt-and-pepper hair. He even had to be wheeled unto a waiting ambulance that took him not to the Senate but St. Luke’s Medical Center.
Mr. Bolante is under heavy guard for the second night in Suite 2016 waiting for doctors to declare him healthy, healthy enough to weather the intense grilling that awaits him in the Senate, plus the sudden start of the Ombudsman’s preliminary probe of the graft charges against him.
Senators are itching to hear what type of ‘siopao’ Joc Joc is going to serve them, with bets almost being taken that instead of ‘meaty’ revelations they could just be bola-bola.
But with undas already upon us, they’ll probably have to wait till next week, while the Ombudsman immediately hinted the preliminary probe will take longer to complete as the fertilizer scam covered almost all regions and involved a big number of local officials who also have to be questioned.
One wonders why was not done during Bolante’s absence these past several years along with the examination of the documentary evidence already amassed in the 2005 Senate probe???
Prudence or deliberate inaction on a case of monumental public interest?
So will Joc Joc be up to answering all the questions from investigators plus the gazillions of questions from the news media?
Will he deliver on his scripted vow “to tell all”?
He better. Joc Joc wouldn’t want to fail the Rotary’s 4-way test and suffer further ignominy right?
Popularity: 1% [?]
sequel of Jun Lozada caper. the people have the right to know where hundreds of million fertilizer funds go. but the senate, which is as corrupt as the executive would grill another corrupt official not in “aid of legislation” but in aid of election 2010 as most pundits would like to label this sequel.
whatever happened to “innocent before being proven guilty”? a school of sharks composed of some senators, media people, the usual red flag bearing hate mongers joined by a blood thirsty group from the (un)civil society, is in a frenzy
swarming over bolante who has not even been indicted for any crime. i guess these people will never appreciate what they are doing until the same thing is done to them when the shoe is on the other foot.
you were right bencard. but the public pronouncement of “guilty” seem to revolve around the fact that he went abroad with intent of hiding, asked for political asylum which was denied and then was forced to go back home.
but i still agree with you that unless proven otherwise, he is innocent and his unwillingness to go back home could be traced to the fact that his “fellow-rotarians” who are in the corridors of power had already abandoned him and he is left to fend for himself and to face the corrupt senate, and probably ask relief from the Court, which incidentally, is as corrupt as the two other branches of government.
ooh boy, we are totally screwed. ! ! !
Hi Bencard.
Naman. With all due respect, innocent until proven guilty? The fact that he fled the country only goes to show that he was hiding something…guilt perhaps? Open your eyes Bencard! I’ll give you 10 reasons to:
1. The Farm Inputs and Implements Program was non-existent. Nobody in the Department of Agriculture was aware of its existence. Not a single document in the files of the DA supported its existence.
2. The fertilizer fund was a single appropriation meant only for 2004. Its implementation in 2004 during the months of the election season is an indication of its intended purpose and illicit objective.
3. The design and implementation of the fertilizer fund scam manifested the height of scandalous corruption — gross overpricing of fertilizers range from almost 700 to 1,250 percent. Towable shredders and chippers were overpriced by as much as 331 percent while small shredders and chippers, by 206 percent.
4. The fertilizer fund was released in the months of February to May, the traditional harvest season in the country when fertilizers are not in use. The planting season begins only in November.
5. The fertilizer fund scam is haunted by ghost and questionable suppliers and deliveries. For instance, the registered business address of AKAME Marketing, the identified supplier of a substantial number of transactions in the P728-million fertilizer fund, could not be located. There were no documents to prove that Castle Rock Construction, which was awarded with multiple contracts, can engage or do business related to the trading of fertilizers. FESHAN Philippines, Inc., one of the largest suppliers, was originally a medical supplier that started to supply fertilizer only in 2004, its office address also non-existent.
6. There was gross disproportion between what was needed by the farmers and wasteful utilization of the farmers’ fund as shown by a document identifying the fertilizer requirements for 2003 submitted by Frisco Malabanan, GMA Rice Program director. The amount needed was only P28.613 million for the entire country compared to P2.806 billion released for 2004.
7. Liquid foliar fertilizer, which is appropriate for ornamental plants, was supplied. Rice requires solid fertilizers which include urea, ammonium sulfate, ammophos, complete fertilizers, and muriate of potash, depending on the situation of the soil.
8. There was “double corruption” in that the wrong and overpriced kind of fertilizer for rice was even diluted with water.
9. Bolante cunningly, wittingly listed 105 congressmen, 53 governors and 23 mayors to justify the immediately release of the fund, specifying uniform amounts, regardless of which congressional districts or local government units the proponents represent, whether these were rice or corn-producing LGUs or not. Bolante even listed proponents from Metro Manila where farms are non-existent.
10. Bolante made the list attractive by including a number of politicians as proponents. In truth, however, their names were just used to lend credence to the project.
From the PCIJ’s 10 reasons why the Feritilizer issue is a scam
i thought that bencard is a lawyer; shouldn’t he lecture us about how flight is accepted as an admission of guilt? :D
Of course he is presumed innocent, Atty. Ben. This is why the thrust of the post is for him to answer the questions and accusations, a challenge for him to serve asado siopao and not bola bola. Isn’t he himself back in the country to have his day in court?
BTW. have you heard fertilizer funds were even listed as having been spent for orchid fertilizer and that funds where also allocated and spent for several Metro Manila component cities where the are only roads. Bubungkalin ang mga kalye para ma-fertilize?
A sampling as reported in 2006 by the PCIJ: “THERE ARE virtually no farms in Las Piñas, Parañaque, Quezon City and certainly not in Makati. Yet these overbuilt and densely-populated cities were among at least 100 congressional districts that, according to the Department of Agriculture (DA), needed P1.8 billion in farm inputs and implements in February 2004, just when the presidential campaign was kicking off.”
jen, et al. don’t get me wrong, please. i’m not defending bolante. all i’m saying is that he is entitled to presumption of innocence (not merely benefit of doubt) before he is found guilty in a court of law. what you listed, jen, may or may not be good evidence of guilt but until offered to, and accepted by, the court are of no value to his accusers.
jester, i guess you cannot call me a lawyer if like you, i would think that mere flight would be sufficient to hold bolante guilty of anything. you need more than that, not the least of which is an indictment.
flight carries the presumption of guilt because according to our jurisprudence if your conscience is clear, you are not afraid to face your accusers anywhere.
but that jurisprudence speaks of a very ideal legal system. in our situation where the courts are themselves under seige for corruption, joc-joc flight can be taken as outside the presumption. one can understand his unwillingness to face his accusers given the nature of the court’s lack of integrity or the Senate, and thus his flight was defensible along this line.
considering also that joc-joc has already been found guilty by publicity, any pronouncement of non-guilt or non-responsibility will not clear prejudgement already made by the public. the public will cry whitewash and for good reason because documents that have surfaced so far indicated some financial indiscretion.
the uninhibited discussion joc-joc’s indiscretion in the media is only an indication of the greater malady that the public do not trust the courts anymore and would like that they themselves parse the guilt or non-guilt of joc-joc.
corruption in all facets of our public life is so endemic that the public have lost their confidence in the institutions. a guilty verdict for bolante while may be sustainable is not being pursued for the greater interest of bringing back that lost confidence in the institutios but purely for selfish political interest.
or even if bolante is convicted, what would prevent GMA from extending a pardon, or during prosecution, by invoking her executive privilege.
we face a herculean task of trying to bring back the public faith in our institutions, but our present leaders are entirely clueless of the imperatives of our times. we simply look at every crisis or scandal as an opportunity to realign our political surrogates and our sychophant minions unmindful of the destructions of our once revered institutions and sense of decency.
in one post i said that great leaders when confronted with a crisis would go in isolation, pray and seek for divine guidance, but mediocre leaders when confronted with a crisis will go to the mass media and pay those media prostitutes masquerading as legit media practitioners large sums of money so these media can repackage the politician’s image.
no wonder why our country is in turmoil today.
Spot on jcc sir.”…our present leaders are entirely clueless of the imperatives of our times. we simply look at every crisis or scandal as an opportunity to realign our political surrogates and our sychophant minions unmindful of the destructions of our once revered institutions and sense of decency.”
In turmoil we are indeed that’s the reason perhaps why there are simmering emotions waiting for the tipping point, including Church leaders who, BTW, are themselves to blame for their past indecision to take a stand against the regime with objectivity compromised by the dole outs they get from such agencies like PAGCOR.
Poor First Gentleman. He’s being accused of trying to talk with Bolante, when it’s his time for rehabilitation, http://www.gmanews.tv/story/130316/Mike-Arroyo-St-Lukes-visit-was-for-rehab-session-not-Bolante-visit.
He just visited his cardiologist, the same doctor attending to Bolante. Got the info he needed. Bolante is “on course” to recovery, reports say. He’s following his doctor’s orders, the same one of FG’s. FG says he’s on to full recovery since he’s “following orders”.
That’s the problem with our society. Masyado tayong malisyosong mag-isip!
Maybe because they keep giving us reasons to.
Wika nga, kung may usok, may sunog… at kung mabaho may bulok. Sa kalagayan natin ngayon, putok na putok na ang kabulukan, patay malisya pa ang mga tinataaman at may mga kampo din na ang misyon at pagtakpan ang mga kasinungalingan ang anga mga nagtataguyod ng higit na panagutan mula sa gobyerno ang siyan pinagmumukhang masama. Anong aral nga ba ang itinuturo natin sa mga kabataan at anong kinabukasan ang mamanahin nila.
ding,
how i wish our agreement on issues far outnumbers our disagreement. :)