Gregorio's recantation proof of massive corruption - Gordon

Independent Senator Richard J. Gordon today said the recantation of Feshan Phils. President Julie Gregorio merely showed that a huge chunk of the funds purportedly intended for the Department of Agriculture's (DA's) Farm Input- Farm Implement (FIFI) project ended up in some individuals' pockets.

Gordon, chairman of the Senate blue ribbon panel, said that based on Gregorio's admission regarding the real cost of the fertilizers, only a small part of the fund really went to the actual purchase of fertilizers.

"Ms. Gregorio sold the fertilizers at P150 per bottle but some individuals passed it at P1,500 each. So this is enough proof that this fund was really stolen," he said at the 7th public hearing on the P728-million fertilizer fund scam.

Gregorio, whose company was the largest supplier of fertilizer for P728-million fertilizer fund scam allegedly engineered by former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante, recanted parts of her first testimony and apologized to the blue ribbon panel for her misleading statement.

She belied her earlier claim that the fertilizers cost P600 per bottle, admitting that they really only cost P150 each.

Gregorio also added that she found her earlier disclosure that the total amount deposited in Feshan's Land Bank Elliptical Road Branch account was only P102 million to be false as she recently discovered when she requested for copies of the bank statements of the account, that total deposits actually amounted to P152.8 million.

Gordon said Gregorio's recantation was clear.

"Ang recantation malinaw. Admission against interest practically yun dahil ang sinasabi niya nangyari ito dahil napilitan siya kasi gusto nyang ipagbili yung stock ng Feshan at nabigyan siya ng pagkakataon," he said.

Gordon noted that the Feshan president apparently did not get a huge profit from the project.

"She earned a very meager profit. It also appears that she was not the signatory in the Feshan account but Marilyn Aytona, the friend of both Paule (Jaime) and Aytona (Marites). They signed the checks and the money was released," he said..

"They also mentioned tax amnesty. It was clear that the tax amnesty was used to erase Feshan's tax obligation or else Feshan would also pay for it," Gordon added.