Senate blue ribbon panel to deliberate on motion to cite
 Bolante in contempt

The Senate blue ribbon committee will convene on Wednesday (Dec. 3) to deliberate whether to serve or lift their motion to cite in contempt former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante.

After the third hearing on the P728-million fertilizer fund scam, Independent Senator Richard J. Gordon, committee chair, said that the motion to cite Bolante in contempt already gained the signature of 12 out of the 17 members of the committee, which means that it is ready to be implemented anytime.

"We are going to have a meeting on Wednesday so that all committee members will have a say, in order that the majority will govern. Actually we have a majority but we need to prove that this is not just a knee-jerk reaction," he said.

Gordon explained that the basis to cite the former undersecretary for contempt is his continuous evasiveness in answering the questions asked by the senators in the panel.

The blue ribbon chair also said that most of Bolante's statements seem to be untruthful, particularly when he said that he was not part of the actual implementation of the Farm Input -- Farm Implements (FIFI) program because he merely "downloaded" the P728-million fund.

"Mr. Bolante has been lying to us. That is a contemptuous conduct and I think we can prove that," Gordon said.

He said all the regional directors of the Department of Agriculture testified that they received respective memoranda signed by Bolante, which clearly stated the project proponents, whether local government unit or congressional district, to whom allotments were transferred.

Moreover, through the course of Friday's hearing, Bolante admitted that his office prepared the list of proponents which was submitted to the Department of Budget and Management and became attached to the Special Allotment Release Order for the FIFI program.

Gordon said that to cite Bolante for contempt and to have him detained would serve as a "punishment" for insulting the Senate.

"It's very clear that he has been lying to us since day one. To me, even if you detain him, he would still continue lying. But this is really just a punishment because he is insulting the Senate with all his evasiveness," he said.

"I don't really need him to stay here so that he'll report. I just want to show everybody in the world that the Senate is not going to take that kind of foolishness, evasiveness and lying," he added.