US Embassy remains mum on Bolante case

The US Embassy remained tightlipped on the case of former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante who is staying in an immigration facility in California for still unknown reasons.

In a reply to a letter of inquiry from Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr., US Ambassador Kristie Kenney said that diplomatic protocol dictated that the Philippine government course a formal request through the Department of Foreign Affairs.

"Regarding your desire for information about a Philippine citizen reported to be in the United States, the usual diplomatic practice would be for the Government of the Republic of the Philippines to make such a request through the Department of Foreign Affairs," Kenney said in her one-page July 17 letter to Magsaysay.

Kenney added, however, that there are "some legal and procedural restrictions on what information that the US government is able to release publicly."

Reliable sources told The STAR last week that Bolante was "not being held against his will" and was "housed" in the detention facility. He is believed to be seeking some form of American protection.

The Senate has called for Bolante’s arrest after he snubbed a public hearing last year over allegations that he used some P2.8 billion in fertilizer funds to reward politicians who helped Mrs. Arroyo win the hotly contested May 2004 presidential election. Magsaysay’s committee conducted the inquiry.

In a reply to Kenney’s letter, Magsaysay wrote that "unanswered questions which Bolante left hanging with his evasion of the Philippine Senate inquiry involve an intricate scheme of money laundering which the United States seeks to eradicate in and out of its borders."

He pointed out that combating money laundering is a high US government priority in its global war on terrorism.

Magsaysay emphasized that the Senate inquiry was also aimed at combating corruption. His committee had recommended plunder charges against Bolante.

The US Embassy’s refusal to release information on Bolante’s case prompted Magsaysay to write a letter to Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo to seek details from the US Embassy.

Magsaysay reiterated the "importance and urgency" of his request, citing national welfare "since the decadent wastage of people’s money is involved."

"The right of information is due our people, especially the millions of Filipino farmers who were deceived with the plunder of the fertilizer fund in 2004," he wrote.

Magsaysay said the "indifference of our executive department to the opinion of many respectable civilians that information on the Bolante case be made public creates suspicion on its mandate to truth and integrity."

Presidential Management Staff head Arthur Yap, who once served as agriculture secretary, doubted that Bolante did any wrongdoing.

"I know him personally. He’s a good friend. And I think what he did, downloading funds, was nothing anomalous," Yap told reporters in a media forum.

Asked about why Bolante disappeared from public view at the height of the controversy, Yap speculated: "Maybe he felt he had no chance. That he may be pilloried. I really don’t know."

He said it was not illegal for the Department of Agriculture to disburse funding to local government units for agricultural projects.

"I did bring down funds too, I gave them to the local governments. In fact during my time, I invited governors to come and open up their books and my books… We released the budget to them after they have shown their counterpart funding," he said.

"We really bring down funds to the local governments (for them) to implement (agriculture programs). Agriculture is a devolved activity under the Administrative Code anyway, under the Devolution Act," Yap said, referring to the 1991 Local Government Code, which decentralized some of the national government’s functions. — With Aurea Calica