THE Sandiganbayan will conduct a full-blown investigation into the plunder case against former Agriculture Secretary Luis Ramon Lorenzo and his Undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante over the P728-million fertilizer fund scam during the Arroyo administration.
That became clear after the anti-graft court on Thursday released its resolution on the matter in which the prosecution dropped Jose Barredo Jr. as an accused and made him a state witness against Lorenzo and Bolante.
“This Court recognizes that the right to determine who to prosecute is essentially an executive function, and not a judicial one,” the court said in its resolution.
“We therefore grant leave to the prosecution to amend the Information and admit the amended information excluding Jose B. Barredo Jr. as one of the accused.”
The P728-million fertilizer scam, allegedly planned by Bolante and several other Agriculture officials, was allegedly a fund-raising campaign for the 2004 presidential bid of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who has been cleared by the Office of the Ombudsman on the matter.
The case stemmed from the allegation that Bolante, Lorenzo and seven others allegedly approved the procurement of 2,133 liters of Bio Nature Liquid Fertilizer from supplier Feshan Philippines Inc. in 2004 using the fertilizer funds.
In August 2014, however, the anti-graft court said the prosecution failed to come up with solid evidence that Bolante misused or accumulated at least P50 million to push with its case.
The court then ordered the Ombudsman to prove its case by asking it to submit additional evidence to improve its plunder case against Bolante and his co-accused after they allegedly received P265.64 million in kickbacks.
That prompted the Office of the Special Prosecutor to submit in March 2015 an amended information that pushed for the dropping of Barredo as an accused, saying his testimony would be “very relevant” in the prosecution of the case.
Citing his sworn affidavit, the Ombudsman said Barredo, a private fertilizer supplier, was the alleged “runner” in the plan to forge the deal with local officials and to deliver kickbacks from the transactions.