Will thieving at DA never cease?

SEN. Mar Roxas has filed Senate Resolution No. 824, which will look into the transactions of the National Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor) which a 2007 Commission on Audit report had found to be anomalous.

"The corrupt practices didn’t end with Joc Joc’s (Bolante) departure from the Department of Agriculture. The administration of President Arroyo continued its misuse of the people’s money and investigation showed it spread to Nabcor," he said.

Roxas noted the COA report said some P300 million was disbursed by the DA for acquisition of post-harvest facilities, but these could not be validated by the auditing agency.

On top of this, it was found that P95.167 million of post-harvest projects purchased by Nabcor were not used by farmers because they were inapplicable and outmoded.

The COA report also showed that P734.255 million was transferred from the DA to Nabcor, which in turn charged a 10 percent administrative fee when handing these to nongovernmental organizations and people’s organizations, thus reducing the amount benefiting these groups.

Aside from these, the DA got P225.22 million from the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund and transferred this to Nabcor for the implementation of a "Competitive Food Processing and Cold Chain Operation" project, despite the latter’s insufficient capability and manpower.

"We can’t simply allow these fund transfers from the DA to Nabcor and other groups. We need accountability and transparency here," he said.

Sen. Richard Gordon castigated "morally upright people" for refusing to tell the truth or expose shenanigans in government.

"Of course, we do not expect murderers, thieves and robbers to admit to their crimes even when they are caught red-handed," he said.

Gordon added: "What we do not expect – and should not expect – is for morally upright people to keep quiet when they know of a crime – especially in the case of the fertilizer fund scam, when people ought to be speaking up."

Gordon said the lying may be traced to lack of confidence in the justice and law enforcement systems.

Gordon, chair of Blue Ribbon committee, has scored former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante several times for not telling the truth and continuing to be evasive during the panel’s investigation on the fertilizer scam.

The panel has filed a case against Bolante for violations of Articles 150 (disobedience to legitimate summons) and 183 (false testimony) of the Revised Penal Code before the Department of Justice.

The Gordon panel expects to bring together other "key players" in the P728 million fertilizer project in its next hearing on Jan. 20. – Dennis Gadil