Whistle-blower Jose Barredo assails Ombudsman over Gloria Arroyo
INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS
The whistle-blower in the P728-million fertilizer fund scam wishes the Office of the Ombudsman had done more digging in order to pin down former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the case.
Jose Barredo, a self-confessed runner in the release of the agriculture funds to Arroyo’s allies in 2004, continues to believe the former president at the very least “knew of the scam and allowed it to take place” during her administration.
“I wish the Office of the Ombudsman had investigated it thoroughly. Anybody could have seen she was involved… How could she not have known when it was her subordinates who did it, and during election time?” Barredo said in a phone interview.
The funds were released shortly before the 2004 election, where Arroyo ran for President.
In clearing Arroyo in the fertilizer fund scam, the Ombudsman said there was no basis to implicate her in the scheme and that, without proof that she had authorized her subordinates’ actions, she could not be held liable for their illegal moves.
Former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante, who was implicated in the scam, would not have been able to release the money without the president’s blessing, Barredo insisted.
“Who else would have given the authority to Bolante to release the funds?” he said.
Bolante, along with former Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo, was among the former Arroyo administration officials charged with plunder for the allegedly irregular release of P728 million to various local officials associated with the former president.
The fertilizer delivered to the districts or cities was allegedly overpriced, while officials allegedly received commissions from the deal.
Barredo was also included in the plunder charge, a development he had protested, saying that he was just a low-level runner for fertilizer supplier Marites Aytona and that he earned just P10,000 a month for the job.
Barredo had also been the Senate’s witness into its inquiry on the controversy and believed he had been granted immunity in exchange for his information. Former Senate blue ribbon committee chair Ramon Magsaysay had said that Barredo was not among those the Senate had recommended for prosecution.
Barredo had not personally dealt with the former president. But in an earlier affidavit, he said he and other so-called “runners” in the fertilizer fund scheme believed the scam went past the Department of Agriculture and all the way up to Malacañang.
In a sworn statement, he said the runners were told that the only ones who could benefit from the deal were the president’s allies.
As a runner, Barredo talked to local government officials to inform them that agriculture funds were available for the purchase of fertilizer and that they could get a 30-percent commission from the deal.
Militant groups have also condemned the Ombudsman’s ruling.
The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), which had filed a plunder complaint against Arroyo over the fertilizer fund issue, said it was the Ombudsman’s Field Investigation Office that failed to conduct an honest to goodness probe of the scam.
The task force merely relied on the complaints, did not summon the victims, and rejected the findings and recommendations of the Senate committees that investigated the scam, the KMP said.
The group noted that some of the players in the scheme were working for the Aquino administration and suspects a “political quid pro quo” between the Aquino administration and Arroyo administration officials.
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