Jocelyn Bolante asks high court to stop plunder case

Former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-joc” Bolante and Assistant Secretary Ibarra Poliquit on Monday asked the Supreme Court to stop their indictment for plunder in connection with the P728-million fertilizer fund scam.

In a 29-page petition for a temporary restraining order, Bolante and Poliquit said the Office of the Ombudsman had only investigated them for violation of the antigraft and corrupt practices act or technical malversation of public funds.

Cited as responders were acting Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro, the special panel of the Office of the Ombudsman, and the Field Investigation Office-Task Force Abono.

The petition for certiorari included annexes five inches thick, including documents submitted during the three-year investigation of the case by the Ombudsman.

“To the surprise of the petitioners, a joint resolution, dated 18 March 2011, was issued by the respondents finding them guilty of plunder under Republic Act No. 7080,” Bolante and Poliquit said.

The two said they had insisted, in their respective motions for reconsideration, that their right to due process was “not observed,” pointing out that the charges against them during the preliminary investigation did not include plunder.

“Petitioners believe that they were never given the opportunity to be heard on the charge of plunder against them and that it is unfair for them to be charged with a nonbailable crime without observing their substantial right to preliminary investigation,” they said.

The two said the Ombudsman committed grave abuse of discretion for not affording them their right to a preliminary investigation and for finding probable cause for plunder without any “legal and factual justification.”

Critics of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo alleged that the fertilizer fund was diverted to her 2004 presidential election campaign instead of being distributed to impoverished farmers.

Bolante, alleged architect of the scam, snubbed a Senate investigation into the case in 2006 and fled to the United States where he unsuccessfully sought political asylum.

He was jailed by US immigration officials after his visa was canceled upon the Senate’s request and was deported to the Philippines in 2008.