BY DENNIS GADIL
SENATE minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr.
yesterday sought the inclusion of around 100 former and
incumbent congressmen who received a share of the P728 million
fertilizer fund.
The Senate Blue Ribbon committee chaired by
Alan Peter Cayetano has set the reopening of its probe next week
with former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn "Joc Joc" Bolante
as the principal resource person.
Pimentel said Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri should
be also invited by the Blue Ribbon committee.
Zubiri has obtained a clearance from the
budget and agriculture departments that his fertilizer
allocation for 2004 has not been touched.
Zubiri narrowly defeated Pimentel’s son Koko
for the last Senate slot in the 2007 elections.
Pimentel said congressmen, incumbent or
otherwise, will have to explain where the money went and why
they took it.
Pimentel, however, did not say if incumbent
congressmen would be invited because of inter-chamber courtesy.
Bolante, named as the master architect of the
fertilizer fund diversion, is confined at the St. Luke’s Medical
Center. He complained of chest pains upon his deportation from
the United States last Oct. 28.
He fled to the US in 2006 to evade the
Senate’s arrest order and was deported after the US government
junked his asylum petition.
Cayetano said the Senate is giving Bolante
until next week before they bring him to the Senate for
detention.
On Lingayen-Dagupan archbishop Oscar Cruz’ statement that
religious and civil society groups would hold a three-day prayer
fast this month to pray that Bolante be "enlightened," Press
Secretary Jesus Dureza said the Palace respects their views.
– With Jocelyn Montemayor
