Former Agri execs urged to name mastermind

MANILA, Philippines—One of the would-be jurors at the impeachment trial of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez on Saturday said former agriculture officials Luis “Cito” Lorenzo and Jocelyn “Joc-joc” Bolante should tell all they know about the P728-million fertilizer fund scam.

“I think Bolante and Lorenzo should spill the beans as to the real mastermind of the scam because it now appears that they are being thrown away like dirty rags after being used to do someone else’s dirty work,” Senator Francis Pangilinan said Saturday.

“Mukhang inilaglag na sila (It looks like they’ve been left in the lurch),” Pangilinan said of the two men against whom plunder charges had been ordered filed by the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the fund that was purportedly diverted to the 2004 election campaign of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

A special panel of the Office of the Ombudsman has issued a resolution directing the filing of plunder charges at the Sandiganbayan against Lorenzo, Bolante and several others who purportedly amassed some P265.6 million from the fund.

The panel also directed that Lorenzo, Bolante and 30 others be charged with falsification, malversation of private and public funds, and graft.

President Aquino’s deputy spokesperson Abigail Valte belittled the resolution issued by the special panel, saying it was “too little, too late.”

Valte said the Office of the Ombudsman’s belated action on the case “doesn’t diminish but highlights the inaction that has gone on.”

“Remember, the fertilizer fund scam happened in 2004 and it was discovered in 2005. Now it’s 2011,” she said over state-run Radyo ng Bayan.

The fertilizer fund scam is considered the strongest complaint among the six articles of impeachment submitted against Gutierrez.