MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE 2) Malacañang has belittled the Ombudsman’s order to file plunder charges against former Agriculture Secretary Luis “Cito” Lorenzo, undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante and several others over the P728-million fertilizer fund scam.
“It’s too little too late. It’s already 2011, and [this came] only after a complaint for impeachment had been filed against her (Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez),” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said over the state-run Radyo ng Bayan.
Valte noted that the order came six years after the fund mess was discovered and the Senate recommended the filing of charges against the key players, including Lorenzo and Bolante.
The order to file plunder charges came three weeks before the Senate is to convene as an impeachment court on May 9 to try Gutierrez on charges of betrayal of public trust.
Gutierrez is facing six articles of impeachment, topped by her alleged inaction on the fund scam that revolved around the release of agriculture department funds to then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s political allies in 2004.
Former Senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr., chair of the Senate agriculture committee that recommended the prosecution of the key players in the scam in 2006, said the order was Gutierrez’s way of trying to skirt the impeachment trial.
“It’s welcome, but at this stage it might be just used as a reason by Gutierrez to wiggle out of the impeachment,” he said in an interview.
Besides, the order “doesn’t change the fact her office has become one of the biggest symbols of stunting reforms within the bureaucracy,” he added.
The former senator agreed with observation that this was “too little too late,” and said that it would also take the Sandiganbayan years to resolve the case.
“It ain’t over until it’s over,” he said.
Valte said that contrary to some observations, the Ombudsman’s belated action on the case would only highlight the first article of impeachment against Gutierrez.
“It doesn’t diminish but highlights the inaction that has gone on before. If you remember, the fertilizer fund scam happened in 2004 and it was discovered in 2005. Now it’s 2011,” she said in the radio interview.
But she deferred to the 23 senators sitting as jurors in the impeachment trial to judge whether this would diminish the first article of impeachment.
“I’m not in a position to say what their motives are. But we can see the lapse from the time it happened and was discovered, and until the case was filed,” she said.
A special panel of the Ombudsman has directed the filing of plunder charges against Lorenzo, Bolante and several other agriculture department officials over the alleged dissipation of the fund.
It said the officials amassed some P265.6 million from the P728-million fund.
On top of the plunder charges, the panel also recommended that Lorenzo, Bolante and 30 others be charged with falsification, malversation of private and public funds, and graft.
Senator Francis Pangilinan, one of the senators sitting as jurors, declined to comment on the impact of the Ombudsman’s action on the impeachment trial, but pressed Lorenzo and Bolante to tell all.
“I think Bolante and Lorenzo should spill the beans as to the real mastermind behind the scam because it now appears that they are being thrown away like dirty rags after being used to do someone else’s dirty work,” he said.
“Sa Tagalog, mukhang nilaglag na sila [It looks like they’ve been left in the lurch],” he added.