MANILA, Philippines—President Macapagal-Arroyo on Friday took a swipe at personalities pushing for a fresh inquiry into the P728-million fertilizer fund scam allegedly orchestrated in 2004 by her then agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-joc” Bolante.

In a speech during the signing of the Credit Information System Law in Malacañang, the President said lawmakers should not engage in “grandstanding” and instead focus on legislation that would cushion the impact of the global financial crunch.

“We cannot waste time on political intrigues and grandstanding. Remaining reforms await our common action,” she said.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Ms Arroyo’s remarks were “just a reminder to some we might call critics.”

“We’re hoping that it will be helpful for all of us if we focus more on measures that will help alleviate the sufferings of our people,” Ermita said.

Bolante, who is suspected of engineering the purported diversion of farmers’ fertilizer funds to Ms Arroyo’s campaign kitty in the run-up to the May 2004 presidential election, arrived in Manila late Tuesday after two years of fighting deportation in a US county jail.

He was arrested by a team sent by the Senate sergeant at arms but was whisked off from the airport to St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City, where he remains confined.

Some senators, including Panfilo Lacson, are seeking the reopening of the inquiry into the fund scandal.

But Sen. Edgardo Angara, current chair of the Senate agriculture committee, is standing by his position that the Office of the Ombudsman should now handle the investigation of Bolante’s case.

“We were through the inquiry. We have found him liable, and convicted him. We’re finished with him. So the next step is the court of justice, the Ombudsman,” Angara told reporters on Friday.

‘Double standard’

The senator said that in the Office of the Ombudsman, Bolante could be assisted by a lawyer, unlike in the Senate.

“Besides, in the Ombudsman, for the protection of the accused, we follow rules of evidence,” he said.

But Sen. Francis Escudero sees a “double standard” in the way the Senate is treating Bolante.

On the phone with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Escudero said his colleagues did not protest when the Senate committee on foreign relations committed “procedural” lapses in looking into the P6.9-million “contingency” fund for top police officials who attended the Interpol General Assembly in Russia early in October.

But now they are invoking “technicalities when talking of Joc-joc,” he said. “Double standard is apparent.”

Escudero said the committee chaired by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago followed “questionable procedure” in conducting the Oct. 23 investigation on the so-called “euro generals.”

He pointed out that Santiago called a hearing while the Senate was on recess and although “nothing was referred” to her committee, and that she issued an arrest warrant on retired police comptroller Eliseo de la Paz “without the concurrence of the majority.”

But when it comes to Bolante, he said, “the other senators say, ‘Let’s wait for the Supreme Court to rule on the warrant’” issued on De la Paz, who had snubbed the inquiry.

Escudero also said he could not understand the behavior of some of his colleagues during the lone hearing presided over by Santiago.

“They were very angry, quarreling with and even shouting [at the police brass] when the amount involved was only P7 million. But in Joc-joc’s case, it’s 700 times more than that amount,” said the senator, who chairs the committees on justice and human rights and on ways and means.

“I hope they are showing anger 100 times over. But it seems that they view Joc-joc differently from De la Paz,” he said.

Sick or acting?

Escudero made the remarks when asked about the resistance posed by Senators Angara and Juan Miguel Zubiri to the proposed reopening of the Senate inquiry into the P728-million fertilizer fund scam.

He said the Senate was dragging its feet in summoning Bolante to testify.

He also added his voice to the call of certain senators for Senate President Manuel Villar to send the chamber’s own doctors to St. Luke’s to look into the actual state of Bolante’s health.

“I’m calling on the Senate doctors to check on him if indeed he’s really sick, or he’s just acting. I hope his BP (blood pressure) is not 110 overacting,” Escudero quipped.

Villar’s office said yesterday that the Senate president had already issued the necessary instruction.

“There’s an instruction for the doctors to personally visit Bolante. But I think they are just waiting for the completion of medical tests,” said a member of Villar’s staff who asked not to be named for lack of authority to make any announcement.

The other day, Dr. Romeo Saavedra, Bolante’s attending physician, said his patient was “stable” and could walk around but needed “further examination.”

Youth rally

Some 15 members of militant youth organizations yesterday held a 20-minute demonstration on a portion of E. Rodriguez Avenue leading to St. Luke’s.

“Liars go to hell,” members of the League of Filipino Students (LFS) and of Anakbayan chanted in calling on Bolante to spill the beans on the fertilizer fund mess.

The rally lifted the spirits of the few reporters who had stayed on to monitor Bolante’s state of health. (Even the hospital management appeared to have expected the media’s waning interest and cut the area allotted for reporters by at least a quarter.)

The demonstrators arrived at around 1 p.m., holding aloft a black replica of a skull. They said the skull would haunt Bolante unless he told the truth on the fertilizer fund scam.

LFS national chair Vencer Crisostomo said the scam was “Bolante’s skeleton in the closet.”

Crisostomo also urged the management of St. Luke’s not to allow Bolante’s continued stay. With a report from Nancy C. Carvajal