Thought for the day... (2nd update)

IF you look like a slut, and behave like a slut, you'll be treated like a slut.

Bato, bato sa langit...

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Of course I wrote the above in reference to someone else, but whaddya know? Here's one who's sold her soul to the devil: GMA to run for Congress.

(What she really is. Photo from the Manila Baywatch.)
I really hope someone files his/her own candidacy in the same district to fight this evil incarnate, and defeats her. She needs to be told she isn't wanted anywhere. I don't think Capampangans are suckers for pain to intentionally want this gloria madness inflicted on themselves. (A word from the Warrior Lawyer why UP professor Randy David backed out from his earlier planned candidacy vs. GMA.)

Wow, I actually thought she couldn't top herself, but this really takes the cake! She is sooooo in love with herself and so greedy she intends to perpetuate herself in power. Di na nahiya sa kapal ng balat at mukha. Nakakadiri!

Well it's up to the Capampangans now. I hope they wake up to the reality that GMA is no good for this country nor for their province.

Merry Christmas!

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(UPDATE 12/01/09, 3:16 pm) And in case you haven't heard, here's another one with the gall to run for public office after stealing taxpayers' money! Like master, like tuta.

A reaction from Rhoda Poliquit

THIS is a reaction to an earlier item I wrote on Barry Poliquit, who has been found guilty by the Senate two years ago for his alleged involvement in the P728-million fertilizer fund scam (click Senate report here). It comes from his wife, Rhoda. We yield this space to her in the interest of fair play.

Hi, Stella...

Long time no see. It's been, what, 16 years? Somebody gave Barry a copy of your blog entry, and I thought I should send you a comment.

Some things have changed, and a lot of them haven't. The kids have grown - the eldest finished Computer Science at AMACU in 2005, the second, Biology at UPLB last April, while the youngest is a Statistics sophomore in UP Diliman. The girlfriends get more airtime than the mom does, haha, and I miss my babies on weekends.

We still live in the little house I got through a 15-year GSIS loan after I was appointed as Director at DAR in 1990. I have moved on to another specialization, though, on counter-terrorism, crisis management, contingency planning, border security, risk analysis and national security management. Not bad for a psych grad with a pre-med minor, huh?

Sorry about that, but we laughed ourselves silly this morning when we read the PDI article that focused more on Barry's PE degree than any of the other issues at yesterday's 6-hour Senate hearing. It's a long-standing joke in the family, with the kids using it as an excuse so they wouldn't have to follow my career choices for them. ("Bakit pa ko magpapakahirap sa engineering, eh si Dadz nga...")

The Barry you knew at DENR is still the same one you saw at the Senate hearing yesterday, except for the thicker waistline (which he hates) and bigger jowls (which is genetic, you should see his dad). He had good times with Doc Roque at DENR because he believed in the man's talent and sense of purpose. He left DENR in 1993 because of differences in principle with the bosses there, and worked for Congressman Edward Matti for a while. He applied for a job at NABCOR in 1997, was appointed AVP for project management, but also resigned three years later. He has always been like that - he just ups and goes when he doesn't feel happy with the job anymore.

So I wasn't surprised when he told me he was leaving DA because of the controversy on the farm inputs fund, even though he liked Field Operations and enjoyed working with the Regional Directors (from whom he learned a lot). He was relieved from Field Operations on September 1, 2004 and given a new assignment on the development of agribusiness lands.

Maybe the Senators found his answer unusual ("I left because I felt I wasn't going to be effective anymore"), since the stereotype government official "na may pwesto/poder" in their mind is "kapit-tuko" (from first-hand experience, perhaps???)

Even in GSIS, he considered resigning (despite the salary) because his first assignment was a desk job, and he felt like the proverbial square peg in a round hole. It was becoming more difficult to wake him up and send him out by 6:15 AM (we live in Batasan Hills) so he wouldn't be late. I'd lend him my driver every so often because his car got rear-ended one morning - he dozed at the wheel.

So the designation as VP for physical resources was a Godsend (bless you, Atty. Winston Garcia). It was like throwing a turtle into water. Now, he happily leaves the house at 5:45 AM to make a 7:00 AM meeting with the building engineers to walk through the renovations being done, and animatedly gives instructions to the maintenance supervisors at 10:30 PM at the height of a typhoon. It's a well-known story in GSIS that he cheerfully vacuumed the carpet on the 7th floor at 1:30 AM, working the graveyard shift side-by-side with the construction and interior decoration crews so they could meet the deadline for transferring Atty. Garcia's office. He really likes what he's doing.

He's still the same "kengkoy" person you knew from way back. He doesn't SCUBA dive anymore, but he still wears the diver's watch I gave him in 1989. His biggest frustration was not being able to join his old mountaineering buddies Art Valdez and Fred Jamili on the Everest Team - they started talking about climbing Everest that summer in 1984 after we all came down Mayon Volcano. The kids finally believed our mountaineering stories when we took them to dinner with Art, Fred, Leo, Pastour, Karina and Noelle.

Let's have coffee one of these days... my treat.

God bless always,

Rhoda

* * * *
I worked at the DA for three years, even before Barry ever joined the department, and have kept myself updated w/ the goings on there even after I left. I am aware of the farm programs that the department under its different administrations have implemented (some of them actually the same banana, under a new name reflecting whoever is the new President). But there has never been a more questionable DA program than said Farm Inputs and Implements Program of former U/Sec Joke-Joke Bolante. In fact, as the Senate report shows, there is no record at the central office that the program has ever existed.

So if Barry knows something, he should tell all.

Is anyone watching?

ARE any of you still watching the hearings in the House of Representatives (Impeachment complaint vs. GMA) and the Senate (starring Joke-Joke Bolante and the fertilizer fund scam)?

I gave up at the last House hearing where former Speaker Jose De Venecia was shooting his mouth off regarding the money allegedly distributed by the presidentita to the congressmen to shut them up in the last impeachment complaint.

I don't doubt that what JDV is saying is true, and even whatever else he is claiming to have happened in China while the presidentita, her husband and he were playing golf w/ ZTE executives. It's just that, too late na dava? Why only now JDV? Just bec. you were still Speaker, you kept quiet all the while your son Joey and Jun Lozada were being grilled over the barbeque pit on the ZTE Broadband issue? Tsk, tsk. How convenient.
* * * *
I did sneak a peek at this afternoon's hearing at the Senate. I was curious to find out Ibarra Poliquit's involvement in this fertilizer fund scam.

(Barry Poliquit is currently VP of physical resources of the GSIS.)

You see I knew an Ibarra/Barry Poliquit almost two decades ago when he was just a staff assistant at the office of Undersecretary Celso Roque at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Roque, a former UP professor, I thought ran a tight ship, and handled the environmental concerns of the department. So even in the late '80s, we were already talking and writing about global warming, and debt-for-nature swaps, etc. Our environmental officials were pretty much ahead of their time compared to their counterparts in the U.S., Japan, and Australia.

Going back to Barry Poliquit, I knew him when he was thinner and was one of the people whom I knew who was already into scuba diving even before it became a rage in the Philippines. He was married to Rhoda Poliquit, who worked in the Dept. of Agrarian Reform then. He also struck me as one of those guys in the DENR who knew his stuff and was willing to share good environmental stories with us reporters.

In my 23-year-old mind, Barry didn't look like someone who would engage in nefarious activities involving gov't funds. Even though he was much older than I, he appeared as someone who still retained his youthful idealism despite the corruption in most government offices.

After I left the beat, I lost touch w/ Barry and his wife, and only heard of him again during the reopened Senate investigation on the fertilizer fund scam. According to the media reports, he was assistant secretary at the Dept. of Agriculture and had helped Joke-Joke Bolante, then Usec, oversee the implementation of the fertilizer fund program. Today he was being grilled on his apparent inadequate monitoring of the program w/c led to the purchases of overpriced fertilizer by their field office.

I wonder what happened to Barry. What changed? Did the corruption eventually get to him? Did it become an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" type of situation for him? Or did I just read him all wrong when he was still at DENR?
* * * *
After googling Dr. Celso Roque to find out what had become of him, I found out that he had passed away on June 30, 2002. Dr. Roque, who was such a masterful storyteller (he always had entertaining stories for us reporters), usually held court at Trellis, the original purveyor of sisig in the metro.

Among the DENR officials of his time, he was really the coolest cat. I could listen to him make kwento for hours, and learned a lot about enviromental issues from him. He is remembered as having pioneered the environmental movement in the Philippines. I raise a glass of wine in his memory.

Where in the world is Cito Lorenzo?

THE testimony of former Agriculture U/Sec. Joke-Joke Bolante yesterday was certainly a joke on the Senators and the Filipino people as he stood his ground and denied there was any anomaly involved in the release of some P728 million to congressmen and local government units in fertilizers and other farm inputs under the Dept. of Agriculture's Ginintuang Masaganang Ani program.

Bolante tried to pin the blame on his former boss Luis "Cito" Lorenzo, then agriculture secretary, whom Bolante said ordered the release of the funds. Which has given rise to questions anew, "Where in the world is Cito Lorenzo?"

Lorenzo was booted out of DA because the presidentita lost heavily in Mindanao during the 2004 presidential elections. Then he was kicked upstairs as presidential adviser on countrywide development with the task to create 1 million jobs nationwide. Take a look at this news story in 2004 based on an interview w/ Sen. Nene Pimentel:

POLITICS IS BEHIND LORENZO'S OUSTER FROM CABINET, SAYS NENE

MANILA, July 12, 2004 (STAR) By Jess Diaz - Politics is behind last week’s resignation of Agriculture Secretary Luis "Cito" Lorenzo, opposition Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said yesterday.

"It’s politics. It’s the culprit behind the forced resignations of Cito Lorenzo, Joey Lina (former secretary of the interior and local government) and (Social Welfare Secretary) Dinky Soliman," he said.

Pimentel said President Arroyo forced the agriculture secretary to quit because she lost in the areas in Mindanao where the Lorenzo family runs agricultural plantations and agriculture-based businesses.

"She lost in these areas, where she expected to win. And she’s taking it against Cito, who has performed creditably as agriculture secretary," Pimentel said. (Read more here.)

After that stint, w/c I believe was just for a year, and telling journalist-friends about how he was able to achieve his mandate of creating one million jobs, Lorenzo then kept to a low profile. Perhaps he could no longer take the heat from the brewing controversy that came to be known as the fertilizer fund scam.

Last we heard, Lorenzo then involved himself in Gawad Kalinga and became its adviser, such that in March 2007, he even gave an inspirational talk in St. Louis, Missouri during the premiere of the Cesar Montano-starrer "Paraiso", a film supposedly on the poor in the Philippines and GK's projects. So if the Senate wants to get in touch w/ Lorenzo, then all it has to do is call up Tony Meloto.

Why Lorenzo was never summoned by the Senate during its first investigation into the fertilizer fund scam, I wouldn't know. If he was summoned, he never showed. So the questions still linger, did he have a part in pushing for the release of funds w/c have been cited as the source of the presidentita's campaign kitty, she who was then running against the very popular veteran artista Fernando Poe Jr.?

When Lorenzo took over as DA Secretary in December 2002, my sources told me then that he wanted to get rid of Bolante or re-assign him somewhere else. The talk already then was, Bolante was assigned to the DA for a specific purpose. (Someone who had worked w/ Bolante before had wondered to me then what he was doing heading DA's finance department when his background was actually in marketing. Bolante used to be an official of Prudential Life which he helped set up w/ well-known pre-need plan pioneer Francisco Alba.)

But it is a well-known fact among the business and political communities that Bolante was a "bata ni Mike", referring to the First Gentleman, and Bolante's fellow Rotarian. This meant that even if Lorenzo tried, he wouldn't have been able to shove Bolante out the door.

Look, it is also widely known that the Department of Agriculture, including some key agencies like the National Food Authority, is a hot bed of ahem, income-generating projects. Maybe not for the farmers and fishermen that these agencies are pledged to serve, but for the officials who head them. (Why do you think the DA keeps insisting there's a rice shortage and needs to import the commodity, when all rice farmers in the provinces will tell you they have a lot of rice? And don't let me get started on the purchases of those jute sacks for the NFA rice.)

Also, even prior to the presidentita's time, I've already heard stories from former DA officials how they were made to carry "bayong-bayong ng pera" during election time, for distribution to voters. And mind you, these were not officials during the time of Marcos but under Presidents after him. So the DA does have a long history of illicit election-related activities w/c I believe continues to this day. (Come on, why even name a program after the initials of the President? Ginintuang Masaganang Ani, erg.)

I don't know Cito Lorenzo personally, but I know he basically has a strong agribusiness background having headed Lapanday Holdings Inc., and belongs to a rather well-respected family from Mindanao. (Read this 2001 interview with Lorenzo in Phil. Business.)

I haven't heard anything negative about him either from the business community even from the older CEOs who only have kind words for their younger colleague. Would Lorenzo tarnish his and his family's reputation by pushing a program w/c he knows would just be used as an election scheme for his boss in Malacañang, in exchange for what? a 20-percent commission? Ang cheap naman. Although it's true, there are some people who would it for less.

It's time for Lorenzo, wherever he is, to come home and speak up. If he is really a "man of honor" as his friends and defenders say that he is, then it's time for him to tell the Filipino nation the truth.

(Photo of Cito Lorenzo from http://www.kalatas.com.)

Senate hearing on the fertilizer fund scam

FINALLY Joke-Joke Bolante makes an appearance at the Senate reconvening to re-investigate the P728-milllion fertilizer fund scam.

People note how Mr. Bolante's tone and demeanor have changed from one who usually goes around strutting and making sure people know who is boss, to one so meek and mild as a mouse. (BP 140/overacting pa din!) (He has been described by those who know him as "cargante", a braggart, and someone who will jump at the chance to lash out at his staff or subordinates. They say the grilling by the Senators yesterday was suffering already for him.)

Noticeable also how he stammered and stumbled on even easy questions like the true nature of his "illness" and who recommended him to his position as U/Sec finance of DA), an indication that he is lying. Of course we all knew he was going to cover up the role of the presidentita in this scam. After being holed up at St. Luke's for a week, I'm pretty sure FG Mike's lawyer drilled into Joke-Joke that he better testify that her royal smallness didn't have anything to do w/ the sordid affair.

And all these Senators talking their heads off, will something come out of these hearings other than new sound bites for the TV/radio news? (Thank you Sen. Santiago for making our day as usual.)

Ang pagbabalik

PEOPLE who know him say Joc-joc Bolante looked tired and defeated. He left the Philippines haughty and arrogant, bragging about his endless Rotary meetings here and abroad, and his closeness to the First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, a fellow Rotarian. Then he returned late last night at the NAIA, his hair now gray and weighing considerably less because of his prison diet. One of his ex-friends monitoring the unfolding events on TV called it karma.

But the old dog still had a few tricks up his sleeve. He was videotaped inside the plane, on his way out, looking very fit, and wearing a slightly incensed expression on his face (probably because of the cameraman). Next we see him at the corridor leading from the tube, seated in a wheelchair, his left hand casually placed on his left breast, as if expecting a chest pain. The media was in a frenzy...those who managed to get inside the landing outside the tube elbowed each other to get a better shot of the former agriculture undersecretary pinpointed as the architect of the P725-million fertilizer fund scam, which was thought to have helped raise funds for the election of the presidentita.

After being wheeled into a waiting ambulance which drove into the Villamor Airbase then out into EDSA, turning into Aurora Blvd., and finally stopping at the St. Luke's Hospital in Quezon City, he is next seen lying on a stretcher, sans oxygen mask and tank, his hand still clutching his chest, being rolled into the one of the elevators. Not once did I believe he was in pain, despite his apparent history of hypertension.

First I wondered, like many of my media colleagues, why Joc-joc was being brought to a Quezon hospital considering that he lived in the South, specifically at No. 20 Ma. Christina St. Ayala Alabang. I asked someone who was familiar w/ his history if she had any ideas, and she told me that the accused fertilizer scammer knew a lot of doctors at St. Luke's as his father had been confined there. I had my doubts and told her that Joc-joc would probably be seen by the family physicians of the presidentita's family. They would try to get to him, send a message to shut up, and at the same time, assure him of their "protection" by providing him with the best health care their money could buy. (I hear that Joc-joc has used up a lot of his funds for his legal defense in the U.S. that he has been trying to sell his other house in Alabang – he has two, thankyouverymuch – as well as his cars which included a bimmer and a late model Mercedes Benz.)

As it turns out, Joc-Joc was visited by FG Mike's cardiologist, as per the latest news from GMA TV. Since they couldn't get him at the airport, they had to try to reach him through the hospital. Hay, super obvious naman ang mga plano nyo presidentita! Well, so much for the Malacañang statement that Bolante's arrival is considered a "non-event."

Those who know Joc-joc feel for his family, most of all. They say his greed did them in and he never once thought about how his actions would affect his family. A few years ago, I met his wife after attending Mass at St. James Church in Ayala Alabang (this was when he had already fled for the U.S. supposedly accompanied by a good friend), and she struck me as a simple, kind and down-to-earth person. She had no airs like her husband has been known for. People close to the Bolante family say she is probably the last person who would know what her husband had been up to. And for her and the kids to be dragged down by this controversy, well, kawawa naman sila.

(Btw, one businessman I recently interviewed told me that the Joc-joc just loved name-dropping. Mayabang talaga. But to his credit, my source added, if Joc-joc knew you were an Ilonggo like him, he would always be friendly and go out of his way to make you feel welcome. Hmmm...misunderstood lang kaya sya? Ngek.)

Anyhoo, check out these photos from Manolo Quezon's blazing coverage of Joc-joc's arrival.

Comings and goings

SO Anthony Bourdain was here. It was a short visit which took him to Sofitel Philippine Plaza where he was billeted (why there I don't know, but yeah, let's wow him w/ the sunset at Manila Bay why don't we?), Pampanga, and Cebu.

Whenever I'm out of town, I usually switch on the TV to Discovery Travel and Living and just veg out watching all the travel and cooking shows, especially Bourdain's No Reservations. (We don't have the channel in the basic package of Skycable, ay kaluoy!, so I've long been thinking of switching to Global Destiny.)

He is one cool dude I would love to hang around with because he eats so well and is into all the simple cooked meals of all these countries he visits. Hindi sya maarte kumain, not like some of those girls in Lonely Planet. If he were Pinoy, I think he would enjoy eating sinangag, tuyo or daing, itlog na maalat, with a steaming cup of coffee on the side. Or not.

I heard he had dinner with a handful of very young journalists last Saturday at a private room at Spiral. (Oh noes! 'wag naman sana yung walang kamatayang buffet! haha). His visit was a much-anticipated event among media especially by those of us who love to cook and eat. Unfortunately, we were not lucky enough to have graced his table. Boo-hoo-hoo!

They ate some goat cheese wrapped in salmon, according to Josemari Ugarte, editor-in-chief of Rogue who was one of those invited. (I should be hating you right now Josemari, except that I just love your Dad and Ana so much. So you are saved from my wrath, haha. I am looking forward to your Bourdain story. But Rene Nieva, phooey to you! harummph!)

Btw, someone just sent me a photo of Saturday's dinner. (It happened apparently bec. Chef Gene Gonzalez, whom Bourdain was supposed to meet, was in Vietnam.) Anyhoo, "the Chosen" were seated at a round table, taking notes or listening in rapt attention to Bourdain probably explain why he will also not eat balut anymore. But no one was seated right beside him. Everyone seemed to be in awe of Bourdain, whoa, parang Jesus Christ Superstar!

I just hope the people who brought Bourdain around didn't make him eat at any sissy pretentious restaurants patronized only by their owners and their wanna-be sosyalero friends. Mercifully, one of his escorts was Claude Tayag who brought Bourdain to Pampanga, of course. (Crispy camaru anyone? Yum!) He also visited Cebu, so visions of Bourdain sweating it out in a sutukil resto by the road side, ice-cold San Miguel beer in the left hand, his smokes in the right hand, tickled me no end. This guy has no hang-ups really about eating even at carinderias of the world. Basta masarap, masaya sya. One thing for sure, he will not eat any lechon. He knows it, he's eaten it, he is up to here, according to his blog. (One visitor to Bourdain's blog actually suggested Lydia's Lechon! hahaha. I prefer Elar's though.)

If I had a chance to show him around, I would have brought him to Sosing's where all the sweaty cabbies and jeepney drivers have their fill of delicious home-cooked meals. Of course, ever since the drivers' amos and the Makati execs discovered Sosing's, it has ceased to be just your ordinary carinderia. Still, people go there for the best nilagang baka, the sweaty ambiance, and the large servings of rice. Ayuus.

(Photo from anthonybourdain.net)

OOPSIE! Anthony Bourdain did get to meet Chef Gene after all, w/ our very own Judy Ann Santos who takes cooking lessons at Cafe Ysabel. Read the account in Gianina Gonzalez's blog. (Ang di alam ni Bourdain, mas sikat sa kanya si Juday haha!)

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Speaking of comings and goings, arriving tomorrow is fertilizer scammer Joc-joc Bolante. I am curious who will eventually meet him at the airport...the NBI, Senate sergeant-of-arms, or Mike Arroyo's boys who will make the former DA undersecretary promptly disappear. (The idiots probably have learned their lesson from that failed Jun Lozada show off off off broadway!)

As of the last TV news I watched, the G-men were still arguing who would take custody of Joc-joc as he re-enters Philippine soil. Supposedly he will be escorted by US Immigration marshalls...ngek, how embarrassing naman! But I wonder though if he really is arriving at the NAIA. There are rumors that Joc-Joc will be arriving either at the DMIA at Clark, Pampanga, or at the Mactan International Airport in Cebu from Hong Kong. He will want to avoid publicity and those who want to ensure that he keeps his mouth shut, may try to secretly whisk him away.

Well, let's just wait for the big show tomorrow.

The fuss over the euro generals and Joc-Joc's arrival

SO there's gonna be a Senate hearing today on this "euro generals" case. Asa pa kayo something will come out of it. This thing is gonna drag on as usual, and straight into next week, just as fertilizer scammer Joc-joc Bolante comes home from the U.S., after being deported by the U.S. immigration authorities. (Btw, props to Sen. MAR Roxas for persuading the U.S. gov't to deport Joc-joc to the Philippines and not to Hong Kong w/c was the latter's port of origin as he fled the country before the Senate's investigation on his scamming began.)

(Police Deputy Director General Avelino Razon, 3rd from lef, presents an award to outgoing Regional Director PCSupt Eliseo dela Paz during the turnover of Police Regional Office 8 at Camp Kangleon, Palo, Leyte, May 21, 2008. Photo from PIA. Tsk, tsk, sinayang ang pagka-award winning.)

Not to belittle naman this euro generals case, but I think a Senate investigation is uncalled for. Eliseo dela Paz, former financial comptroller of the Phil. National Police has admitted his mistake. He apologized for it. And he is supposed to return the funds. Is there a deeper reason why he did what he did? Maybe. But as far as I'm concerned, tapos na ang issue and all media has to do now is follow up on the liquidation of the funds used for this trip. Media has to make sure the Commission on Audit reviews the uses of these funds. If these were cash advances indeed from the PNP coffers, then they should be covered by the appropriate paperwork.

Why were the wives included in this trip? If they paid for the trip from their own pockets, wala tayong pakialam. Obvious bang they wanted to do some sightseeing? and shopping? But if they used government funds, and it's easy to check that by looking into the records of the travel agency which arranged the trip or the PNP records mismo, then a case can be filed against the PNP for misappropriation of funds. Or just have these wives fork over the cash covering their trip arrangements. To punish their Takosa (takot sa asawa) husbands naman, the PNP or the DILG leadership should withhold a portion of Dela Paz's pension benefits (e kasi stupid sha, nagpahuli e!), and suspend the other officials who brought their wives on that trip.

With Senadora Tililing at the forefront of this investigation, I suspect the administration is using this as a smokescreen so the public won't notice Joc-joc's arrival next week. Is this Senate investigation the "pressing matter" that Sen. Edgardo Angara has been referring to as his reason not to pursue the Joc-Joc Bolante case? (Palibhasa sipsip ka ke GMA.) Why is it only Sen. MAR Roxas the one concerned with this case? Why isn't the Senate pressing the arrest of Joc-Joc? Are you telling us that when the scammer arrives next week, he will just casually waltz into town like nothing happened? Avavava gardner!

MAR goes after Joc-joc's loot

SENATOR ROXAS URGES
‘Probe Bolante’s US bank accounts’

INQUIRER.net 10/04/2008

MANILA, Philippines -- Senator Manuel “Mar” Roxas II on Saturday said he sought the assistance of various United States government agencies in recovering the P728-million fertilizer fund or parts of it believed to have been deposited in bank accounts and assets of former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante in the US.

In separate letters to three US agencies involved in finding illicit funds, the Liberal Party president asked “for an exhaustive and comprehensive financial investigation” on Bolante’s bank accounts and assets in the US in line with the principles of truth and accountability in public offices.

He addressed this appeal for assistance to, among others, Stuart Levey, Undersecretary, Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Department of Treasury; Mark Sullivan, Director, Financial Crimes Division, Secret Service; and Matthew Friedrich, Acting Assistant Attorney-General, Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section, Criminal Division, Department of Justice. (Click MAR sics Joc-joc)

IT'S about time someone stood up and went after all the money that Joc-Joc Bolante stole from us taxpayers. And I'm glad it's Sen. MAR Roxas who's doing it. Even though Bolante is his kasinmanwa (both of them are from Capiz), Sen. MAR shows that he means business when it comes to battling corruption.

I think that makes him a good candidate for President in 2010, dontcha think? I don't think this is just for show. Why would he waste his breath writing all those U.S. federal agencies if he were not serious in this mission? He already made an appeal even to US Ambassador to Manila Kirstie Kenney. I hope the feds respond promptly to this request considering they have already denied asylum to Bolante. They know the guy is guilty and hiding all his money in the States. I mean how can this guy afford to buy a house in the States, in Australia and another house in Ayala, Alabang (aside from the first one he earlier acquired while in the private sector) on a salary of a mere undersecretary?

I'm surprised the Anti-Money Laundering Council, which is attached to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (central bank) didn't take the initiative in trying to track down Bolante's loot. After all, the Senate already proclaimed him the architect of the fertilizer fund scam in 2006. Imagine the AMLC took two years before it froze Bolante's bank accounts, which, as everyone has probably guessed, all empty.

Sige, sic 'em MAR! Bring that kawatan back to Manila and prosecute his pants off!

(MAR photo from the Senator's web site.)

Come home Joc-joc, come home!

US Court of Appeals rejects Bolante's latest asylum plea
BY JOSEPH G. LARIOSA
GMANews.TV 09/02/2008

(Photo from ABS-CBN News)

CHICAGO, Illinois – It was an unsolicited birthday gift Jocelyn “Joc-Joc" I. Bolante is better off without.

On the eve of his 57th birthday last August 27, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit based in Chicago, Illinois, denied his petition for review of his asylum claim.

The court also affirmed the judgment of the Chicago Immigration Judge (IJ) as supplemented by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). (Read the rest here.)

Come home and spill the beans. Be a hero instead of a heel.

On the Sulpicio ship sinking...(and Joc-joc too!)

THIS is a rather belated reaction to my friend Jessica's question why Sulpicio Lines hasn't been shut down yet, despite the many tragedies it has been involved in.

It just so happens I had a very interesting conversation recently with an official of the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), an agency under the Department of Transportation and Communications, and tasked to aid and promote the development of the country's maritime industry. For the simple reason that I never introduced myself as a journalist, as the occasion of our meeting was of a personal nature, I shall not reveal his name.

(What the victims of Sulpicio Lines and their relatives need is a lawyer like the menacing manipulative bitch Patricia Hewes, played by Glenn Close in the super series 'Damages'. Afraid!)

But as we discussed the sinking of the MV Princess of the Stars, he said he was pretty sure that "act of negligence", as he put it, will be dismissed like its other cases before. It just so happens, the shipping company has good lawyers, and the victims do not. That's it. (I would also like to venture a guess that the Go family, which owns Sulpicio, is a major contributor to many a presidential campaign, as most business families in the Philippines are.)

As we are already seeing it unfold, many of the victims' relatives are already accepting the P200,000 in compensatory damages offered to them. You can't blame them because these people need money to bury their dead. But the MARINA guy added, this is no skin off the nose of Sulpicio because it's their insurance company which is paying for this and not the shipping company itself, although it did pay the insurance premiums.

He also added that while it is easy to blame the ship's crew for this accident, he said more often than not, it is not a question of competence. "Sometimes the crew do not have a choice. The shipping company, their bosses tell them, 'leave the pier and don't come back.' What will they do? They have no choice but to follow." The MARINA guy also said, for sure the shipping company's management received the notifications from PAGASA, the weather bureau, but probably chose to ignore it. "It's plain greed," he stressed, as he blamed Sulpicio's managers for not heeding the warning and alerts on the typhoon, just so company could make a day's revenue.

The MARINA official said if only the relatives of this year's victims band together, hire a good lawyer, and file a class suit, "they will win!" Mapapasara ang Sulpicio Lines, he averred. And it's about time it was closed, he said, because all the tragedies that the shipping line has been involved in, he said, can be traced to the company's negligence, despite protestations of Sulpicio's lawyers.

So if any great lawyer out there is reading this, perhaps it's time to step forward and help the victims of Sulpicio Lines' and their relatives get the justice they deserve. They need a bitch of a lawyer like Damages' Patricia Hewes to sue Sulpicio's pants off. This isn't exactly a losing proposition for legal eagles out there you know. At the worst, even if they lose the case, any lawyer who takes up the cudgels for these victims will have made a name for himself/herself already.

UPDATE: Sulpicio loses 10-yr-old case

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AND speaking of belated reactions, the Court of Appeals has just issued a freeze order on the bank accounts of Joc-joc "Fertilizer scam" Bolante, and a few others. Too late the hero. Betcha by golly waw! empty na 'yang mga accounts na 'yan!