BAGUIO CITY – Ifugao Gov. Teodoro Baguilat Jr. Friday said some personnel of the agriculture department offered him a P1 million commission in exchange for rigging the bidding process in the controversial P728 million fertilizer fund program.

Baguilat was included in the list of local government officials who received a P5-million appropriation from this fund, which was facilitated by former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante.

Bolante has been accused of diverting the funds to President Macapagal-Arroyo’s 2004 presidential campaign, which he denied during a Senate inquiry on Thursday.

Baguilat said the Ifugao provincial government was alerted to the fund allotment in April 2004, at the height of his reelection campaign as a gubernatorial candidate of the administration party Lakas-CMD.

Baguilat lost to the late former Gov. Benjamin Cappleman in that race.

He said he turned down a request made by a DA liaison officer, whom he did not identify, to rig the fertilizer bids.

Commission

“A DA liaison officer came and asked that we fast track and manipulate bidding so their suppliers would get the purchase,” he said in a text message sent to the Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net).

“The DA released the fund to the Ifugao government during the campaign period [before the] May 2004 [elections].

“In return [for rigging the bids], I [would] get a commission of P1 million. It was tempting because we were running out of funds [one] week before the elections and the administration party said the fertilizer fund was help from Lakas.

“We rejected the offer [because] it violated the [Commission on Elections’] ban [on pursuing projects during the elections], the procurement law and [also because] it was anomalous.”

Baguilat is now a member of the Liberal Party.

“This DA liaison officer continued to hound me to rig the bidding until June while I remained governor, but I declined,” Baguilat said.

In a telephone interview from Lagawe, Ifugao, Baguilat said: “Maybe I could have won [the election] with that extra fund. But we won [as a matter] of principle.”

Organic

He said the fertilizer program went against the thrust of a rice program that Baguilat had led to rehabilitate Ifugao farms and restore the rice terraces.

The province has been campaigning to keep the terraces and all low lying rice farms in Ifugao completely organic, he said.

He said he had asked the provincial accountant to review and reconstruct the liquidation report on the P5-million allocation, which Cappleman had used in good faith.

“It was (DA Cordillera director Cesar) Rodriguez who telephoned me [on Friday] to reconstruct the liquidation report because they were being hounded by the Senate for a report,” Baguilat said.

In Bulacan, Rep. Lorna Silverio denied receiving any amount for the purchase of fertilizer for her district.

She said her office’s role was to identify the beneficiaries who would receive the initial P3 million from the Department of Agriculture. She said another P2 million was released to sustain the project.

“There was no money…or fertilizer given to me or to us, members of Congress,” she said. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon, with a report from Carmela Reyes, Inquirer Central Luzon