MANILA -- Can the Senate order the arrest of former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn "Jocjoc'' Bolante who returns home on Tuesday upon his deportation from the United States?
On Sunday, senators offered different proposals on how to go about it, such as asking the Supreme Court whether an arrest order issued four years ago by then senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr., whose agriculture committee investigated Bolante on the P728-million fund scam, was still valid.
But Sen. Edgardo Angara said on Sunday it would be up to the Ombudsman to order the arrest of Bolante, who fled to the US in 2006 to avoid testifying in a Senate inquiry. (The US is now deporting Bolante after cancelling his US visa, jailing him and rejecting his appeals for asylum.)
Angara, the current chair of the Senate agriculture committee, said the Senate, through Magsaysay's committee, already concluded the investigation on the fertilizer fund scam and thus, the arrest order issued then against Bolante had lapsed.
He reminded his colleagues that Magsaysay's committee completed its hearing, came up with a finding and endorsed this to the Office of the Ombudsman, concerning allegations that the fertilizer fund was distributed by Bolante to political supporters of President Macapagal-Arroyo during the 2004 election campaign.
"So the Ombudsman should now act on it,'' he said in a phone interview.
Angara said those seeking for the arrest of Bolante should ask Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez to effect Bolante's arrest. They could go to court to compel the Ombudsman to do so, if it were to fail to detain Bolante.
But he agreed the high court could be asked whether Magsaysay's arrest order on Bolante was still valid. Angara pointed out that Magsaysay's committee was no longer in existence and there should be a basis for issuing a new arrest order on the former agriculture secretary.
Angara added the Senate could take up the fertilizer fund scam again should there be a new cause of action.
"If there is a new cause of action, then we can initiate that in the 14th Congress,'' Angara said.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said that the Senate blue ribbon committee could on its own take jurisdiction over the fertilizer fund scam investigation and order the arrest of Bolante.
Interviewed over dzBB, Pimentel said that Villar could issue a new arrest order based on the old order approved by the Magsaysay committee.
Later in a phone interview, he clarified this would be possible only if the study being done by the Senate legal office would support the issuance of a new arrest order by Villar.
Sen. Francis Escudero urged Villar to issue a new arrest order on Bolante, so that it could be tested at the Supreme Court.
Escudero cited the need to determine whether the arrest order issued by Magsaysay's committee was still valid and that the high court could answer this question.
If the Senate were to tackle this issue during the resumption of Congress session on Nov. 10, Escudero said he would "favor" issuing a subpoena to Bolante. Should Bolante snub the subpoena, "I'm in favor that he be arrested,'' Escudero said.
Still, Escudero blamed the Ombdusman for not acting on the Bolante case as well as other high profile cases.
He also agreed that the Senate blue ribbon committee could on its own hold a hearing on the fertilizer fund scam even during the recess of Congress. However, the committee chair, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, is out of the country.
