Zubiri: I did not benefit from scam

In your editorial, “Where will the buck stop?” (5/14/14), my name was included on the list of lawmakers who benefited from the fertilizer fund scam.

I want to put it on record that I did not utilize the fertilizer fund. In fact, during the Senate investigation headed by then Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr., my name was cleared as it was certified by the Department of Agriculture’s director of Region 10, the late Rufo Chan, that I had not availed myself of my allocation from the fertilizer fund.

The late anticorruption crusader and former solicitor general Frank Chavez also acknowledged that I did not utilize the fund in question.

It is in the records of the 13th Congress that from the very start, I was against the release of the fertilizer fund. During my last term as congressman (2004-2007), I rose to request an investigation, questioning the dubious nature of the fund.

In the course of my 13 years in public service, I never misused or misappropriated my Priority Development Assistance Fund or any other public fund. It is all accounted for under my “One Town, One Project” program, which consisted of hospitals, classrooms, and day care and healthcare centers.

I hope the Inquirer will set the record straight and not lump me together with those who took advantage of the fertilizer fund and the PDAF.

—JUAN MIGUEL F. ZUBIRI

representative,

3rd district of Bukidnon,

1998-2007