Palace asked to produce Lorenzo, Bolante

Malacañang has been urged to produce former agriculture secretary Luis Lorenzo and undersecretary Jocelyn "Jocjoc" Bolante so they can shed light on the P800-million fertilizer scam that the Senate is investigating.

In making the appeal, Makati Rep. Teodoro "Teddyboy" Locsin Jr. said if the Palace has nothing to hide, it should be easy for it to force the two former officials to attend the Senate inquiry.

In a television interview, Locsin said Lorenzo and Bolante have mocked the investigation by rejecting invitations and even subpoenas issued by the probe panel, the committee on agriculture chaired by Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr.

"Malacañang can even cancel their passports to force them to return here, unless they were able to acquire citizenship in a country where Garcillano went to hide," Locsin said.

He was referring to missing former election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, believed to be the "Garci" in the controversial "Hello, Garci" tapes with whom a female caller who sounds like President Arroyo is heard discussing vote-rigging and winning the May 2004 presidential election by more than a million votes.

Locsin chairs the House committee on electoral reforms, one of five panels that looked into the "Hello, Garci" taped conversations controversy.

He is a "victim" in the fertilizer scam, along with Las Piñas City Rep. Cynthia Villar.

He said he, Villar and at least 13 other colleagues were listed in budget and Department of Agriculture documents as recipients of P3 million to P5 million each in fertilizer funds that Mrs. Arroyo released shortly before the May 2004 presidential election.

He said they did not get even a centavo of the millions that the perpetrators of the scam made them appear to have received.

They also did not list their districts to be recipients of fertilizer funds, he added.

"How could my district, which is all concrete, be entitled to fertilizer funds?" Locsin asked.

He pointed out that the perpetrators of the scam brazenly committed a crime.

"They had the gall and the guts to use the names of real persons, lawmakers at that, to make money, millions of it," he stressed.

The funds were released during the time of Lorenzo as agriculture secretary. Administration critics claim the money was used for Mrs. Arroyo’s election. The alleged point man for the project was Bolante, who is a protégé and a fellow Rotarian of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo.

Magsaysay has recently found out that fertilizer purchased for the Bicol Region was overpriced by as much as P80 million.

Locsin urged the Senate to pursue its investigation on the fertilizer scam and press the Arroyo administration to produce Lorenzo and Bolante.

"We make laws and they (those in the executive branch) execute those laws. Part of their job is to produce witnesses in congressional investigations," he said.

He said if the Philippines were the United States, administration officials would be facing charges of obstruction of justice in connection with the flights of Garcillano, Lorenzo and Bolante.

Garcillano flew out of the country last July 14 when the five House committees looking into the "Garci" controversy were already looking for him. He is the object of a warrant of arrest issued by the House.

Lorenzo and Bolante took separate flights last week, just hours before a Senate hearing to which they were invited. In Bolante’s case, a subpoena was issued to compel his appearance.

The subpoena was served while Bolante was attending a Rotary Club conference at the Westin Philippine Plaza Hotel, whose guards even tried to prevent Senate process servers from doing their job.

The guards’ alleged interference prompted Senate President Franklin Drilon to denounce the hotel management and to call for prosecuting concerned hotel officials and personnel for obstruction of justice.