Chavez files P1.59-B plunder case vs Arroyo

UPDATED 2:00 p.m. - Former Solicitor General Francisco Chavez on Tuesday filed with the Department of Justice (DOJ) a P1.59 billion plunder charge against former President and incumbent Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. According to Chavez, the so-called "fertilizer fund scam" involved not just the now infamous P728 million amount that was allegedly diverted to the campaign coffers of Arroyo when she ran for president in 2004. Chavez said another P1.59 billion from the government's fertilizer program allegedly went into Arroyo's campaign kitty. Chavez claimed that in February 2004 — the beginning of the campaign period for the elections that year — Arroyo authorized the Agriculture department's release of P728 million and P1.59 billion for the fertilizer fund program for poor farmers. According to Chavez, the money was transferred to Arroyo's political largesse for the elections. "[Respondent Arroyo] caused the release of no less than P728 million and P1.59 billion, or an aggregate amount of P2.318 billion of public funds of the Department of Agriculture to specific members of the House of Representatives, provincial governors, and city and municipal mayors," Chavez said in his complaint. In a 31-page complaint filed with the DOJ on Tuesday, Chavez charged Arroyo and nine others with plunder and a string of other criminal charges for the alleged misuse of the fertilizer funds. "This is a story of how our country's leaders have schemingly and systematically earmarked billions in pubic funds, on the pretext of funding 'farm inputs' ostensibly to help ameliorate the economic plight of our farmers, but which were shamelessly utilized to fund the selfish political ambitions of respondent Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo," said the complaint. Arroyo's spokesperson, Len Bautista-Horn, declined to give her reaction. "Can't comment until we receive [a] copy and read the complaint," she said in a text message. The other respondents in the case include:

Former Department of Agriculture secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr.;

Fomer Agricuture undersecretary Jocelyn "Joc-Joc" Bolante;

Former Agriculture assistant secretary Ibarra Poliquit;

Budget Undersecretary Mario Relampagos;

Budget director Nora Oliveros, and

so-called runners Jaime Paule, Rose Lingan-Florendo, Leni Aquin, and Jane Fabian. Chavez also named Lorenzo and Bolante on the charge sheet because they supposedly served as conduits in the diversion of funds. The Office of the Ombudsman has already filed with the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan a plunder case against Bolante and Lorenzo for the P728 million alleged misuse of funds. The other respondents are being charged for their alleged participation in the plunder of public funds. 200 pages of documentary evidence Chavez's complaint was accompanied by almost 200 pages of documentary evidence, which consist of the Budget department's special allotment release orders (SAROs) and the Senate blue ribbon committee's reports on the fertilizer fund scam, among others. Chavez said he has already filed a similar P1.59 billion plunder complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman in 2004 but the Ombudsman that time, Simeon Marcelo, supposedly did not lift a finger. Chavez also said that Marcelo's successor, Merceditas Gutierrez, sat on the complaint as well. "This story, like other stories of graft and corruption in government, fell on the predictably deaf ears the then-beleaguered (now resigned) Merceditas Gutierrez and her immediate predecessor, who, for reasons I may only speculate on, shirked from the trust reposed in them," said Chavez's complaint. Speaking to reporters, Chavez said he withdrew the complaint from the Office of the Ombudsman last week so that when he files the same with the Department of Justice, he will not be accused of forum shopping. - VVP, GMA News