LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March Fianza
Bolante’s loose caper

Congratulations to Regional Trial Court Judge Ed Claravall for being elected National President of Young Men’s Christian Association, vice Ramon Cardenas, financial analyst and senior executive secretary of former President Erap.

Like US President Barack Obama, “advocate for change,” who will take his seat in January, Judge Claravall who will also sit as national president in that month will bring new changes in YMCA.
***
It is time the abductors of Cordillera Peoples Alliance co-founder James Balao should be thinking of their situation. They may choose to turn witness against the crime because soon the truth will come out anyway – maybe not in this lifetime but as the law of karma works mysteriously, their descendants are those who will suffer the consequences.

News reports had it that police authorities stepped up their effort in identifying and looking for James Balao’s abductors. Thank you. Setting aside political ideologies that are less permanent as compared to culture and relations, proper police investigation must be pursued as much as any other crime. Bias must be left out since the case involves the life of a fellow Igorot.
***

There maybe truth in the line that “flight is an indication of guilt.” First, Mr. Jocjoc Bolante took off for America after the 2004 elections. Second, when asked to come home to answer charges that he manipulated government money in a scam worth P728M, he immediately sought shelter in an American court and said that he can not go home because he fears for his life.

He should not have left if he did not feel guilty of a crime. He could have come back right away when the Senate summoned him, and he should not have told tales of conspiracy because he knew that not even the American court would believe him. All these actions after the 2004 elections have pulled him deeper into the mud.

There was nowhere else to go but home after America cancelled his visa. But Jocjoc and his spin doctors have not run out of tricks. He got sick right away when his airplane landed here, but he was fit to travel when he left America . Of course, any sick person would be rushed to a hospital.

And so, there he was with the best doctors of St Luke’s hoping against hope that Bolante was really sick. They could not find any so that eventually, after having more time to plan out his moves, he had to be released. Until now his doctors do not know what ailed him. If he had wished to stay longer and turn St. Luke’s into a hotel room, maybe the doctors had no choice left but to invent a very sick report for him, so that there would be legitimate reason for him to be confined.

Aside from his true and false statements in the American court, there are evidences produced by the COA and other sources that are now in the custody of the Ombudsman. Now, he can not be saying something in America and the Ombudsman while talking about another thing in the Senate. Otherwise, he will find himself caught in the tongue with his own hook.
********
While in Manila , a jeepney that was ahead of us had the words “street farmer” boldly painted across its mud guards. I knew what the driver meant by those words but what flew to my mind was the fact that certain LGUs in Metro Manila, a concrete jungle, were recipients of funds for overpriced foliage fertilizers.

When and how Manila roads and residential subdivisions turned into agricultural farms overnight, that we do not know. These things only happen in dreams. But in this administration, even dreams come true. And even allied politicians who know that rice, corn and camote do not grow on cement become recipients of fertilizer funds.

If Bolante said Malacanang is not knowledgeable of the money releases that involved P728M and therefore it is not guilty, then there must be many other fund releases that Malacanang does not know about, even as their signatures appear in the documents.

Well, it is good to have a President who is ignorant of things that he signs. Our beloved country is up in the list of Most Corrupt nations and so the more ignorant a President is about things that his secretaries do, we go up the list and the more popular we become.

Farmers who were supposed to be the true beneficiaries said they never received any assistance even if records proved that their congressman or governor or mayor did receive the funds. Surely, politicians whose names appeared in the list of recipients will deny anything that will implicate them.

If so, there is no doubt that the investigation by the senate will end earlier as expected. Aside from these delays, there are senators and department secretaries identified with the administration who say that the senate probe is useless – giving us the hint that they already know the whole truth. – ozram.666@gmail.com