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The most outrageous statements are being made in public and under
oath by two witnesses in separate Senate investigations. I could
hyperventilate but will not. But here is where the outrageousness
comes in.
Former Undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante would have
us believe that the Department of Budget and Management releases
P728M in one blow without repeated requests, long waits and pressure
from high officials. Sorry, but it does not happen this way for huge
and extraordinary expenses of which this so-called fertilizer fund
was one. It is difficult enough to have a budgeted fund released for
everyday operations. One has to go back over and over imploring for
release because there is a waiting line (figuratively, maybe
literally) and the Budget Director has to juggle who gets funding
first and who later depending on the cash flow or whatever factors
make for not-quite-timely releases.
That only an undersecretary was tasked to
“download” this huge amount, virtually doing it like cash from
an ATM in an impersonal, solitary manner, with exclusive authority
bogs the mind. We all know that funds ready for release always
attract attention as honey attracts ants. That this was such a
well-kept secret makes it suspect and mysterious, sinister even,
because money can bend the law, corrupt people, buy votes. It can
also be stolen, diverted and disappear. This is what seems to have
happened to this fertilizer-fund. There are pathetic samples of the
fertilizer that it purchased in the sense of being totally
inappropriate for rice and in pitiably small quantities with no
resulting increased harvests, no knowledge among those who should
know that it was released.
It is all very well to come well-dressed and
seemingly healthy after looking sick and earning a hospital stay to
evade confinement in an unhospitable place. It is not very well to
make declarations that are like fairy tales for their absurdity,
unrealism and incredibility. These were well-coached answers but
they had the so glaring element of untruth in them that no matter
how loud they were spoken, how forcefully and confidently they were
given, the speaker could only be standing on thin ice about to break
and plunge him in freezing water. Let someone not forget to ask this
former undersecretary why he flew away from a Senate subpoena and
preferred to be in US confinement for two years until he was
deported after making all kinds of appeals for asylum and protection
from death threats just so be would not have to come home and answer
questions. Which makes the apology about not meaning to evade the
inquiry so much hogwash.
The national police has its own problems with
the truth with their multiple explanations about the so-called
contingency fund, emergency money and finally cash for spy gear
prototypes. All of these answers are unbelievable because they have
not been proven to the satisfaction of the public. We cannot take
them at face value for their false notes and tortured explanations.
Let us start with the fact that huge amounts of
currency on travelers is suspect. That retired and overage officers
were those chosen for the Interpol conference indicates a junket.
That one wife whose husband was not on the trip was an accredited
member or even a plain groupie here brings in the suspicion of a
junket at taxpayers’ expense again. So, ethically speaking, most
of the delegates to the Interpol were the wrong sort.
Other explanations like withdrawing millions in
pesos and successfully changing them to euros in out-of-the way
money changer shops is again suspicious. Even banks do not have
100,000 plus euros ready to exchange hands. My bank kept me waiting
for five days to buy an infinitesimal fraction of that amount in
euros. So, how come the money changer can exchange that amount at
the drop of a hat?
And what is this that the wife of the euro
bearer brought $20,000 for shopping money? Not even our free
spending travel-mad millionaires bring that amount in cash. It is
unwieldy, has to be declared at Customs and can be lost to thieves.
They may spend that amount but they will use credit cards, wire
transfers, leaving a paper trail of their transactions. Obviously
these police junketeers were careful not to leave a paper trail.
Again as in the Department of Budget and
Management releases, it is incredible that the money releases for
the “euro generals” were done as solo operations. As it is there
was more than one person carrying the funds. So, how come only one
person was at fault for a “lapse,” just a little misstep as he
tried to put it?
The Philippine National Police has mishandled
the whole mess so much so that its chief is now discredited and can
be suspected under the circumstances of being unforthcoming while
being in the position to manufacture, manipulate, fix documents.
The public can tell a lie when it presents
itself as the truth.
miongpin@yahoo.com
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