Bolante clears Arroyo; most senators not convinced
by JESUS F. LLANTO, abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak | 11/13/2008 11:22 PM
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Former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-joc” Bolante on Thursday cleared President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of having a role in the P728 million fertilizer fund scam but passed the blame to the Department of Agriculture (DA) regional offices.
In his testimony at the resumption of the Senate investigation, Bolante cleared President Arroyo, congressmen and local officials implicated in the controversial scam. He said regional offices of the agriculture department are the ones in charge of implementing the funds.
Bolante said the president did not have a hand in the distribution of the funds
“President Arroyo is not and has not been involved in this kind of project,” Bolante told the Senate Blue Ribbon committee.
Bolante, tagged as the architect of the scam, said the funding for the farm inputs and farm implements does not need approval of the president.
“It is an old funding activity of the Department of Agriculture,” he said.
Bolante said that it was former Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo who made the request for the release of funds for farm inputs. The money, he said, was part of the unutilized funds of the 2003 budget.
The former agriculture undersecretary, who is currently under Senate custody, also cleared the names of the local officials and congressmen who were identified as proponents of the fertilizer funds.
A total of 103 congressmen, 53 provincial governors and 23 mayors were identified as among those who availed of the funds.
“Congressmen and governors did not receive a single centavo, Bolante said. “ We released it to the local government units' chosen implementors.”
Bolante added that they only used the names of the officials to identify the focal person responsible for the money. He added that the money released to all local government units were transferred to offices of the provincial and municipal treasurers.
Passing the blame
Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, chair of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, said that Bolante has been trying to clear Malacañang and pass the blame to the implementors of the fund and the regional field units (RFUs) of the agriculture department.
“His first step is to separate himself from Malacanang and then to separate himself from the implementors,” Cayetano told reporters.
Bolante told panel that the regional offices of the DA are the ones tasked to supervise the project implementors, and the responsibility does not lie with the offices of secretary and the undersecretaries.
Senator Aquilino Pimentel said that Bolante’s statements are “not plausible” because as undersecretary for finance, it was part of his duty to ensure that the funds they released were given to the intended recipients.
“The responsibility does not lie with the end users but with the [fund] sources,” Pimentel said.
Not convincing
Bolante’s statements, however, were inconsistent and did not convince most of the senators.
After saying that the responsibility of supervising the projects is not among the duties of secretary and undersecretaries, Bolante said that when they transferred the funds to the RFUs, the staff of the undersecretary for operations—who reports to the DA secretary—supervise the project.
Senator Pia Cayetano said that Bolante should have coordinated with the RFUs because it was part of his duty as undersecretary in charge of financial management of the department’s fund.
Senator Benigno Aquino III, meanwhile, showed the committee and Bolante a letter from former DA Secretary Lorenzo to Bolante saying that “all requests should be subjected to your [Bolante’s] assessment and evaluation."
Aquino’s finding contradicts Bolante’s earlier testimony that his role was just to transfer the fund from the central office to the RFUs.
Some senators said that all of Bolante’s statements could be verified when they start calling the regional directors of the DA in the succeeding sessions.
“Everything and anything he says will be compared to documents of DA and the Commission on Audit,” Cayetano said.
