Press Release
February 17, 2009

Senate panel to issue prelim report on fertilizer fund scam

The Senate blue ribbon committee will issue this week its preliminary report culled from its eight public hearings into the alleged anomalous P728-million fertilizer project under the Department of Agriculture (DA).

Independent Senator Richard J. Gordon, committee chairman, said the report would include findings on personalities implicated on the issue as well as recommendations on the legislative actions the Senate must take as a result of its investigation.

"We will issue the preliminary report definitely this week, either on Wednesday or Thursday. This is more specific and hard-hitting than the committee report during the 13th Congress by the committees on blue ribbon and agriculture," he said.

Gordon said the report, which underwent four revisions and based on the eight hearings the committee conducted from Nov. 13, 2008 to Jan. 26, 2009, contains a strong statement against the executive department.

He added that the report is specific on the acts committed, either by omission or commission, by all parties and personalities involved.

"You will see a strong statement there about the executive (branch). It is not because it is the executive but that is what we found out. You commit crimes by omission or commission, and the omission is very glaring. It amounts to passive commission," Gordon said.

"This is a very, very big case because there are killings involved here in this whole issue, which we intend to investigate too. And with an issue this big, their silence is deafening," he added.

In drafting the report, Gordon noted that despite being alleged of orchestrating the anomalous project, former DA undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante even landed a high position at the Government Service Insurance System, together with his assistant Ibarra Poliquit who is currently the GSIS Vice President for Physical Resources.

He also recalled that the deaths of two former DA employees--Marlene Esperat and Teofilo Mojica--had been linked to their attempts to expose alleged irregularities in the department, which the committee intends to investigate.

Meanwhile, Gordon said the preliminary report also includes proposed legislative remedial measures aimed at plugging loopholes in the country's laws.

Among these laws are the Anti-Money Laundering Act and its Implementing Rules and Regulations, the Secrecy of Bank Deposits Act, the Government Procurement Act, and the Omnibus Election Code.

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