Probe of 100 solons in P728M scam urged

Recipients of 'Joc Joc' largesse

BY DENNIS GADIL

SENATE minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. yesterday sought the inclusion of around 100 former and incumbent congressmen who received a share of the P728 million fertilizer fund.

The Senate Blue Ribbon committee chaired by Alan Peter Cayetano has set the reopening of its probe next week with former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn "Joc Joc" Bolante as the principal resource person.

Pimentel said Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri should be also invited by the Blue Ribbon committee.

Zubiri has obtained a clearance from the budget and agriculture departments that his fertilizer allocation for 2004 has not been touched.

Zubiri narrowly defeated Pimentel’s son Koko for the last Senate slot in the 2007 elections.

Pimentel said congressmen, incumbent or otherwise, will have to explain where the money went and why they took it.

Pimentel, however, did not say if incumbent congressmen would be invited because of inter-chamber courtesy.

Bolante, named as the master architect of the fertilizer fund diversion, is confined at the St. Luke’s Medical Center. He complained of chest pains upon his deportation from the United States last Oct. 28.

He fled to the US in 2006 to evade the Senate’s arrest order and was deported after the US government junked his asylum petition.

Cayetano said the Senate is giving Bolante until next week before they bring him to the Senate for detention.

On Lingayen-Dagupan archbishop Oscar Cruz’ statement that religious and civil society groups would hold a three-day prayer fast this month to pray that Bolante be "enlightened," Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said the Palace respects their views. – With Jocelyn Montemayor