The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) will mobilize its total of 3 million members through-out Asia to look for former Department of Agriculture Undersecretary  Jocelyn “Joc-joc” Bolante, who is involved in the P728 million fertilizer scam, which was purportedly used by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during the last elections.

 According to Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos, concurrent secretary general of the two peasant groups, “we will not allow Joc-joc Bolante to do a Garcillano and disappear into thin air. We will mobilize all our members as well as our networks in other parts of the world to locate and bring him to the Senate and clear the matter up. But we know that this would be a hard task considering since we filed plunder charges against him and Gloria at the office of the Ombudsman last year he has hardly set foot on Philippine soil again. In fact we have never seen him at the DA offices, in all the times that we were conducting dialogues in the department,”

“We have also received reports that his most recent trip was in Canada and now he is in the United States, probably  consulting with his patron First Gentleman Mike Arroyo. If Joc-joc Bolante does not come back to face the music then we know who already has him, the one who also has Garcillano,” added the peasant leader.

Meanwhile Ka Willy Marbella, internal deputy secretary general of KMP said, “but as things are going Malacanang will do everything to hide and silence Bolante, because he is the Garcillano in the fertilizer scam scandal. Contrary to what Bolante’s lawyer is saying that he is not in hiding, the former DA undersecretary is a master at TNT (tago ng tago) tactics, since this controvery was publicized last year.

“It would be best for Malacanang to also help in bringing Bolante to the Senate hearing so as to shed light to the controversy. All we want is the truth and for justice to be served. Now if they would not cooperate, then as expected they are hiding the truth to evade justice, in this case hiding Joc-joc to once again save Gloria,” ended Marbella. # # #
 

KMP - 7 October 2005