Bolante Senate-bound for fertilizer fund scam probe
| 11/13/2008 7:32 AM
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Former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn "Jocjoc" Bolante left St. Luke's Medical Center in Quezon City Thursday morning to face the Senate agriculture committee two years after the panel ordered his arrest for repeatedly snubbing its summons.
Bolante was escorted by at least members of the Senate's Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms (OSAA) as he emerged from St. Luke's front entrance at 7:08 a.m. He was accompanied by lawyer Antonio Zulueta.
It was Bolante's second public appearance since he was deported from the United States last month.
The former agriculture official was escorted to a waiting Senate van and left the hospital around 7:10 a.m.
Bolante is scheduled to appear before a Senate Blue-Ribbon Committee hearing on the alleged misuse of P728 million in fertilizer funds. The hearing is set at 9:30 a.m.
OSAA chief Jose Balajadia had told the media that he will first check Bolante's condition with St. Luke's doctors before taking the former agriculture official to the Senate. He said he will bring Bolante to the Blue-Ribbon Committee hearing before 9 a.m.
If plans push through, it would be the first time Bolante will face the Senate and testify on the alleged fertilizer fund scam.
The Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, headed by then-Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr., had tagged Bolante as the mastermind of the scam.
Magsaysay's committee report said Bolante distributed fertilizer funds to local politicians to assure President Arroyo's win in the 2004 presidential election.
