More proof of GMA vote buying spree surfaces

From the tribune:

GMA’s proof of vote buying spree surfaces
FIRST COUPLE’S POINTMAN JOC-JOC BOLANTE MISSING

By Angie M. Rosales
Friday, 10 07, 2005

The impeachment complaints may have been killed by President Arroyo's allies in the House of Representatives, but evidence of poll fraud, vote buying and the use of public funds to fatten the Arroyo campaign kitty has been surfacing in various Senate hearings, the latest being the inquiry into the P3-billion fertilizer funds that never went to the farmers.

This latest Senate hearing also disclosed the information that the First Couple's alleged bagman and campaign fund-raiser former Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante has gone missing like former poll commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.

The hearing, despite the absence of the several Cabinet officials, unearthed several anomalies in the fund distribution, which listed the names of several congressmen, governors and mayors, who, however, in earlier media interviews, denied knowledge of having been aware of the fertilizer funds being allocated to them.

Read the whole article. PCIJ also has a report on this.

And then there's Arroyo's angry reaction:

The same hearing appeared to have unnerved Mrs. Arroyo, as she took the first opportunity yesterday to continue bashing the Senate, saying, in a speech before the newly elected members of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the Senate was “wasting its time” destabilizing her presidency.

“To certain senators: Stop your mindless preoccupation with all things political and do something: Pass our national budget, create jobs, build up stockpiles of rice, bring health insurance to the poor, construct more schools. Stop your wrangling and get to work. Time is wasted as the people suffer,” she said.

I find these statements hypocritical and offensive, especially coming from her.