Suplico on the fertilizer scam: Where did the money go?
Suplico
Iloilo -- Iloilo 5th district Rep. Rolex Suplico in a phone interview yesterday, accused the Arroyo Administration for siphoning a great bulk of the Department of Agriculture Fund reportedly intended for the purchase of fertilizer, and partly for the corn-palay seedlings for the farmers to her campaign kitty in 2004 elections.
This according to Suplico was the result of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) research of the money trail which spent conspicuously during the recent presidential elections.
Farmers, however, in various part of the country vehemently denied having received the said financial assistance, instead only congressmen, governors and mayors believed to be political allies of Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo reportedly received the amount ranging from P3 million to P5 million in cash.
Suplico revealed he was the only congressman in the province of Iloilo not able to receive the fertilizer fund from DA. In his effort to go deeper into the mess, Suplico wanted to unmask those who were recipients and officials involved in the said scandalous act of political treachery and mass cheating of the Filipino taxpayers.
'I challenge the Arroyo Administration to start cleaning the dirt and the stench left by the fertilizer scam,' said Suplico.
'For starters, the Administration should cooperate with the Commission on Audit and the Senate inquiry, provide the needed documents, and produce former Agriculture Sec. Luisito Lorenzo and Usec. Jocjoc Bolante,' he further challenged.
'I ask my colleagues, who are recipients of farm inputs and fertilizers, voluntarily submit themselves for investigation by the COA or any investigating body in order to account for the monies they have received from this Fund. Nobody, not even a congressman is above the law!' he added.
Meanwhile, Gov. Niel D. Tupas on his regular Monday press conference told members of the Capitol Press Corp that he himself on several occasions have been offered to get the P5 million in cash on condition that the P2 million part of the said amount should be doled out as facilitation fees to personnel facilitating the fertilizer fund.
Tupas outrightly refused to accept the offer smelling something rotten in the transaction.