Ombudsman junks graft raps vs. Gloria Arroyo over fertilizer fund scam

(Updated 6:53 p.m.) Due to lack of evidence, the Office of the Ombudsman has dismissed the graft complaint against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in connection with the multi-million fertilizer fund scam.

In a resolution, the Ombudsman said none of the documents submitted by the complainant could link Arroyo to the alleged irregularities.

The anti-graft body had recommended the filing of plunder charges against former Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo and former Agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn "Joc-Joc" Bolante, who both served during the Arroyo administration, in April 2011 in connection with the scam.

The complaint filed by the militant group Pamalakaya had included Arroyo in the complaint, saying she had "direct control" over the actions of Lorenzo and Bolante during her presidency.

But the Ombudsman said, "complainant failed to present any documentary or testimonial evidence proving respondent's alleged knowledge of, or participation in, the scheme perpetrated by Lorenzo and Bolante."

The scam—one of the major controversies that rocked the nine-year Arroyo administration—refers to the P728-million worth of fertilizer funds that were allegedly diverted to Arroyo’s campaign kitty in the 2004 national elections.

"All of the documents submitted by complainant were prepared and signed by other persons, and not by respondent," the Ombudsman said.

"Thus, no reasonable conclusion may be made that she, directly or indirectly, took part in the alleged irregularities that attended the entire process in the release of the fund," the Ombudsman added.

Arroyo, now a congresswoman representing Pampanga's second district, ran for president in 2004.

The Department of Budget and Management released P728 million to the Department of Agriculture under a Special Allotment Release Order (SARO). The fund was supposed to have been released to 181 beneficiaries composed of congressional districts, provinces, and municipalities.

However, according to the Commission on Audit, 76 of the 181 beneficiaries did not receive their shares of the fund, while at least 18 non-beneficiaries received funding.

President Benigno Aquino III had described the fertilizer fund anomaly as worse than the pork barrel fund scam allegedly masterminded by Janet Lim-Napoles.

In a statement, Presidential Communications Operations Office head Herminio Coloma Jr. said they "respect the findings of the Office of the Ombudsman, an independent constitutional body, which has the authority to decide on such cases filed before it."

Former senator Panfilo Lacson, who was one of Arroyo's biggest critics, said in a text message that he accepts and respects the Ombudsman's decision.

"While I was the one who initiated the move to have the 728-million-peso fertilizer scam investigated by the Senate, the Ombudsman is in the best position to determine probable cause or the lack of it," Lacson, now presidential assistant for post-Yolanda reconstruction, told GMA News.

Arroyo is under hospital arrest at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City for allegedly conspiring to fraudulently divert P366 million in confidential PCSO intelligence funds "for personal gain" from 2008 to 2010. She is also facing an electoral sabotage case in connection with the 2007 midterm elections.

The former President had also pleaded not guilty to graft cases filed against her before the Sandiganbayan for the botched NBN-ZTE deal during her presidency.

Most recently, Arroyo was named respondent in yet another plunder complaint, this time in connection with the alleged misuse of P900 million in royalties from the Malampaya gas fund. —with Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK/YA/JDS, GMA News