Bolante, 1; Senate, 0

EDITORIAL

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10/31/2008

With the way former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-joc” Bolante has been giving the finger at the Senate with his apparent faked illness, and with yesterday’s unannounced visit of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo to Saint Luke’s Hospital where he is confined, it would be safe to say goodbye to any wishful thoughts about Bolante telling the truth about the P728-million fertilizer fund anomaly.

Bolante, who is a close friend of the First Gentleman and who was among the first to be appointed by Mrs. Arroyo when she grabbed power in 2001, now seems to be having the upper hand in the cat and mouse game played with the Senate.

It was even reported that police units have already replaced the personnel of the Senate sergeant at arms guarding Bolante.

Bolante is considered to be the only person who will be able to fill the gap on questions on who ordered the diversion of government funds to boost the campaign of Gloria in the 2004 elections.

While the answer to that question is too obvious, an actual piece of evidence, if the light of reason somehow gets hold of Bolante, would pin down Gloria, if not in the controlled justice institutions in the country, then in the court of public opinion.

The Senate, after an inquiry which Bolante had repeatedly snubbed, came out with a report naming the former agriculture department executive as the architect of the scam that was made all the more wicked since it made use of farmers who are already on their knees in scraping an income due to the high cost of fertilizers.

Despite the Senate report which was transmitted to the Ombudsman for over two years now, no action has been taken against Bolante. It took a deportation proceeding from the United States government to boot back Bolante to the country.

When he returned to the country, Bolante looked worn and beaten, but it seems that Joc-joc was merely putting up an early Halloween act, a trick or treat, for the whole country to see.

After more than 24 hours of being confined at St. Luke’s Hospital, no medical report has been released on Bolante as of press time. The hospital is trying to communicate to reporters although in an indirect way that Bolante, who is now a private individual, is entitled to his privacy and that he and the hospital have no obligation to the public to issue a report. In the end, the hospital did, saying that the relatives had given permission to release the medical condition of Bolante.

The seeming collusion of his doctor in withholding Bolante from the Senate had already irked some senators who said that they may haul physicians of Bolante and some of the hospital’s officials to the Senate.

The Ombudsman, Merceditas Gutierrez, said her office is still in the process of “collating evidence” based on the Senate report.

The communication lines between the Senate and the Ombudsman might really be so bad that it is taking Gutierrez all of some three years to ask the Senate to furnish the Ombudsman with what it already has in pinning Bolante in the fertilizer fund scam.

Gutierrez and Bolante, however, share a common friend, the First Gentleman, who is Gutierrez’s law school classmate.

A hint on what the public may expect from Bolante was the House of Representatives, packed with Mrs. Arroyo’s allies, saying that it would have Bolante as witness in the impeachment case filed against Gloria.

Rep. Matias Defensor, chairman of the House committee on justice handling the impeachment case and a Gloria ally, said Bolante will definitely be testifying in his committee over the impeachment case.

The likes of former government executive Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada, who attained celebrity status in spilling all in the anomalous National Broadband Network project, and the Black and White Movement of civil socialites who were among those responsible in imposing Gloria on the nation in 2001, have been calling on Bolante to come clean on the fertilizer fund scam.

To them, dream on and good luck.

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