Roxas asks US help in recovering P728-M fertilizer fund

MANILA, Philippines - Senator Mar Roxas has sought the assistance of various United States government agencies in recovering the missing 728-million-peso fertilizer fund. In a statement on Saturday, Roxas said he asked US officials to retrieve the fund or parts of it which are believed to have been deposited in the bank accounts and assets of former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc" Bolante in America. He said the Philippine Senate had already released its report finding Bolante to be the “main architect" of the P728-million fertilizer fund scam, and recommended the filing of criminal charges against him in 2006. In separate letters to three agencies involved in finding illicit funds, he asked “for an exhaustive and comprehensive financial investigation" on Bolante’s bank accounts and assets in the US. “Sa pagdulog ko sa mga ahensiya ng Estados Unidos, kampante akong hindi nila papalampasin ang ganito kabigat na krimen (After seeking help from government agencies of the United States, I am confident that they will not let off such a big crime)," Roxas said in the statement. He addressed this appeal for assistance to, among others, Undersecretary Stuart Levey of the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Department of Treasury; Director Mark Sullivan of Financial Crimes Division, Secret Service; and Matthew Friedrich, acting assistant attorney-general of the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section of the Department of Justice. Moreover, Roxas said they have been doing everything just to bring Bolante back to the Philippines to face the law in the soonest time possible. “We’ve been waiting for four years. We need to show that no one can escape the consequences of committing a crime against the Filipino people," said Roxas. He said in the letters that although Bolante’s 32 known bank accounts have already been frozen, there is “strong probability" that a substantial amount of the missing public fund has already been deposited to foreign banks or otherwise used to acquire assets in the US. “I fear that the Filipino taxpayers’ money, which has been illegally diverted to other uses, will never be traced and recovered," he said in the letters to the US agencies. “Hindi biro ang halagang ito: P728 milyon na dapat sana’y napunta sa mga magsasaka. Hindi puwedeng mawala na lang ito na parang bula (The fund’s worth should be taken for granted, it’s P728 million that should’ve gone to the farmers. The fund cannot disappear just like that)," he said. Meanwhile, the US Court of Appeals 7th Circuit has dismissed Bolante’s petition for asylum, with a final ruling affirming this being awaited. Last September 18, Roxas wrote US Ambassador Kristie Kenney requesting her assistance in ensuring Bolante’s deportation directly to the Philippines once the US courts rule with finality against the asylum petition.- GMANews.TV