Bolante warrant no longer valid, says Joker; bigger probe eyed

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Joker Arroyo believes the Senate warrant of arrest against former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante could no longer be enforced.

In a statement, Arroyo said the arrest warrant issued during the 13th Congress has become “legally defunct” under the present 14th Congress.

“The warrant of arrest against Jocjoc Bolante issued during the 13th Congress is what is called in law ‘functus officio,’” read the statement.

“It can no longer be enforced, it is legally defunct. Something which once had life and power, but which has become of no virtue whatsoever.”

Arroyo said former senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr., who chaired the Senate committee on agriculture and food during the 13th Congress, had decided to terminate the fertilizer scam hearing with or without Bolante.

“The committee report on the fertilizer scam is an exhaustive and thoroughly complete report, making a finding of guilt on the part of Bolante and company of high officials, and recommending their criminal prosecution,” read the statement.

“The committee report is complete in itself and rectified unanimously in plenary by the Senate of the 13th Congress. That too is ‘functus officio,’ a task performed. Having fulfilled the function, discharged the office, or accomplished the purpose, and therefore of no further force or authority.”

Arroyo said the Senate has done its job, and the next move is now up to the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice.

“Can the Senate now reopen the fertilizer scam?” read the statement.

“The Senate has the privilege and the luxury of redundancy by initiating a new resolution to probe the same subject under the broad banner of ‘in aid of legislation.’”

Expand probe – Pimentel

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. called yesterday on the Senate to investigate the wife of another former agriculture undersecretary who allegedly facilitated the distribution of fertilizer funds.

Speaking to reporters, Pimentel said he had heard about the alleged involvement of a certain Aida Gerochi in the fertilizer fund scam.

“Certainly we can ask information of her to complete our investigation in addition to what Bolante will have to tell us under compulsion by the Senate,” he said.

“It is not good for the Senate to dilly dally on this investigation.”

Pimentel said the Senate has no choice but to further investigate the fertilizer fund scam and Bolante.

“Not to do so would tarnish the reputation of the institution even more,” he said.

“The records of the Bolante investigation speak for themselves. It was not closed with finality precisely because Bolante evaded our jurisdiction.

“At first, with the apparent assistance of the security people, if not of the officials of the then Westin Philippine Plaza, when he disappeared like (magician and escapagolist Harry) Houdini as he was about to be served the Senate subpoena at the hotel where he had a function and second, with the complicity of Customs and immigration people, when he vanished like an exiting typhoon in a swirl of lies and denials for parts then unknown.”

Pimentel said Bolante is feigning illness since the Senate physician and doctors at St. Luke’s Medical Center found nothing seriously wrong in his tests.

Jocjoc not avoiding probe – lawyer

Bolante’s lawyer denied yesterday that their petition for a writ of habeas corpus before the Court of Appeals is a ploy to avoid testifying before the Senate on the P728-million fertilizer fund scam.

In a statement, lawyer Dennis Añover said a writ of habeas corpus is a legal remedy available to a person who is being deprived of his liberty under questionable circumstances.

“It is a fundamental constitutional guarantee that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law,” read the statement.

“In the case of Mr. Bolante, no less than Senators (Edgardo) Angara and Arroyo have expressed the view that the warrant of arrest issued by the (previous) Senate, pursuant to which Mr. Bolante is presently being held in constructive detention by the Senate sergeant-at-arms, has already become ‘functus officio,’ hence no longer effective.”

Añover said their petition for a writ of habeas corpus aims to question the legal basis of Bolante’s detention.

“Under our system of government, only the courts have the power to determine the legality of a person’s detention or confinement,” read the statement.

“We should not preempt the judgment of the court by speculating that the petition is an evasion strategy, otherwise we would be undermining judicial authority.”

Last Tuesday, Bolante’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus was raffled to Associate Justice Arturo Tayag of the Court of Appeals’ Third Division. However, Tayag inhibited himself for personal reasons.

The petition was re-raffled last Wednesday and it landed with Associate Justice Teresita Flores of the CA’s Second Division.

Other members of the Second Division are Associate Justice Hakim Abdulwahid and Portia Hormachuelos.

GMA not part of probe

President Arroyo is not part of the investigation of the Office of the Ombudsman on the fertilizer fund scam.

The Office of the Ombudsman said it would not touch on at least three charges against Mrs. Arroyo filed by former solicitor general Frank Chavez in 2004 unless ordered by the Supreme Court.

Assistant Ombudsman Jose de Jesus Jr. said they would have to wait for the SC’s ruling on a petition filed by lawyer Harry Roque questioning its decision not to summon Mrs. Arroyo over criminal charges related to the botched $329-million national broadband network project because of her constitutional immunity from suits.

“This is the very justiciable issue raised by one of the lawyers in the NBN-ZTE case to the SC,” he said.

“The High Tribunal is yet to issue a definite ruling on the said question. Courtesy to it and in observance of the sub judice principle, we prefer to await the final SC ruling on the matter.”

De Jesus said they believe such a resolution from the SC would once and for all “settle all questions (about the issue of immunity from suit of the President).”

‘Speed up Bolante hearing’

The civil society group Black and White Movement asked yesterday Blue Ribbon committee chairman Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano to act with dispatch against Bolante.

Leah Navarro, Black and White convenor, said Bolante is another suspected government “con man” who tries to escape accountability.

“We support the decision of Blue Ribbon committee chairman Cayetano to reopen the fertilizer fund scam hearing, but we plead that he act with dispatch lest the terrible pressures put upon certain institutions yield success,” she said. 

Navarro said the Senate committee on agriculture and food’s report states that the issue on the fertilizer fund scam remains unresolved without Bolante’s testimony. – With Mike Frialde, Edu Punay, Jose Rodel