SO MUCH FOR DELICADEZA
THE DAILY PCIJ
Posted by: Alecks P. Pabico
Nov. 30, 2008
With delicadeza just so easily dispensed with, the fourth impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was junked last week and goes to a plenary vote this Tuesday. but it is unlikely that enough votes will be garnered to overturn the house of Representatives justice committees ruling declaring the impeachment complaint void for being insufficient in substance.
For one, there is no indication that the rest of the house will be seized by a belated sense of propriety, if not decency , in much the same way that pro-administration members of the justice committee apparently were not.
Based on the Commission on audit (COA) report, 14 of the 42 members of the committee were among those listed as actual recipients of fertilizer funds-ranging from P3 million to P5 million from the anomalous Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) program of the Department of Agriculture in 2004.
Six other committee members took over family members who, at the time of the fund releases, were the sitting representatives of their districts. Only the relatives of two committee members, however, received funds of P3 million each. (see tables
Table 1 :HOUSE JUSTICE COMMITTEE MEMBERS WHO WERE ACTUAL RECIPIENTS OF FERTILIZER FUNDS IN 2004:
REPRESENTATIVES:
1.Exequil Javier , Lakas-CMD --- Lone Dist. Antique --- P5 million
2.EDGAR CHATTO, Lakas-CMD --- 1st Dist. Bohol --- P3 million
3. Eufrocino Codilla, Lakas --- 4th dist Leyte --- P5 million
4. Belma Cabilao, Lakas --- Lone Dist Zamboanga--- P5 million
5. Solomon Chungalao, Lakas --- Lone dist Ifugao --- P5 million
6. Munir Arbison, Lakas --- 2nd dist Sulu --- P3 million
7. ROBERTO CAJES, Lakas --- 2nd Dist Bohol --- P3 million
And so forth......too many congressman dili nako isuwat tanan...
Table 4: HOUSE MEMBERS WHOSE RELATIVES WERE ACTUAL RECIPIENTS OF FERTILIZER FUNDS IN 2004:
Representatives:
1.Judy Syjuco, Lakas --- 2nd dist. Iloilo -----P3 million ( Released to husband Augusto as then district representatives)
2. Henry Teves , Lakas --- 3rd dist. Negros Oriental---P3 million ( released to grandfather Herminio as then dist. representatives)
3. Ramon Durano VI, NPC--- 5th dist Cebu ------P5 million (released to brother Joseph Felix as then district representatives)
4. ADAM RELSON JALA, Lakas--- 3rd Dist. Bohol ---P3 million (released to father Eladio Jala as representatives of 3rd dist)
and so forth....( dili nako tanan ilista nga congressman kay kapoy dok dok sa computer hehehe)
source: COA
Understandably, minority congressman tried, albeit in vain , to have their colleagues in the minority disqualified, or at the very least inhibit themselves, from voting on the issue of sufficiency in substance of the impeachment complaint, which alleged, among others, the diversion of P728 million in fertilizer funds to arroyo allies- 103 congressmen and some local government unit during the 2004 presidential campaign.
The senate investigation in 2005 found former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn "Joc Joc" [/color]Bolante, a close confidante of first Gentlemen Jose Miguel arroyo, to have masterminded the fertilizer funds scam. On the same day the Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) for the P728 million in fertilizer funds was released by the budget department, Bolante wrote to various congressman (including the bohol 3 solon) to inform them of the availability of funds under the GMA Program.
In its final report on the said funds, the COA likewise noted irregularities, particularly in the circuitous route of the fund releases from the DA central office to the regional offices, and their subsequent transfer to local government units and nongovernment organizations that resulted in the funds not being fully accounted for even to this day. Some of the NGOs identified by congressman, and some local government units as beneficiaries were found to be of dubious legitimacy.
The COA also found out that the fertilizers were groddly overpriced, were purchased from quenstionable fertilizers without public bidding, and did not even reach their intended beneficiaries in at least three regions.
That settled, the plenary voting on the impeachment complaint will therefore be not much different.
Still, it would be worth watching how 60 more Administration congressmen, who are linked one way or another to the fertilizer fund scam, would vote.
Thirty-six (36) of them were recipients of the said funds, including the current speaker Nograles, who was reported to have gotten P3 million.
Seventeen more are relatives- parents, wives, siblings, sons, etc.- of those who received the funds in 2004.
Alas, to our representatives, DELICADEZA, like honesty, as Billy Joel sang, is such a lonely word.
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