Fertilizer probe to include DA executive's killing

The Senate Blue Ribbon committee will include another murder case in its investigation into the fertilizer fund scam.

Sen. Richard Gordon, committee chairman, said that aside from the murder of journalist Marlene Esperat, the killing of agriculture employee Teofilo Mojica might also be linked to the scam engineered reportedly by former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante.

Esperat had also worked in the Department of Agriculture as resident Ombudsman while Mojica was a member of the board of directors of its employees’ association. He allegedly had in his possession documents showing the participation in the anomaly of two DA finance officers in Region 12.

“We shudder at the revelations that millions of taxpayers’ money are carted away. And not only was the money stolen from government coffers, but it may also have been used in the killing of Esperat and Mojica to silence them,” Gordon said.

“The Senate will not be intimidated. We will continue digging out what has been kept hidden and encourage more people to surface. But right now, I fear for the lives of our whistleblowers and witnesses,” he added.

Gordon earlier chided the Ombudsman and the DA for not seeking a more in-depth investigation of the slaying of Esperat and Mojica.

“I don’t know why the Ombudsman did not take action when one of their own was killed. And so with the DA because prior to Mojica’s killing, he had documents on a P168-million anomaly in DA Region 12,” he said.

Gordon said there are indications that a very powerful and well-financed organization is using millions of pesos of people’s money to silence those who squeal on its illegal government transactions.

“The murders of Esperat and Mojica were meant to keep them and others from coming out with the truth. That makes these two murders a very big problem of the government,” Gordon said.

“It is time to conduct a full-blown investigation,” he stressed.

Esperat had a pending graft complaint against Bolante, DA Secretary Arthur Yap, former DA secretary Luis “Cito” Lorenzo Jr., and other officials of the DA.

Esperat was gunned down on March 24, 2005 at her home in Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat, in front of her children two years after she filed the complaint.

Mojica and his family were shot dead inside their house in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan last Sept. 12.