‘Joc Joc’ drops bid to void arrest warrant

Pressure forces justice to inhibit self on habeas corpus plea

BY EVANGELINE DE VERA

FORMER agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn "Joc Joc" Bolante yesterday withdrew his petition before the Supreme Court to stop the Senate from arresting him, saying intervening circumstances have mooted his petition.

In a four-page motion, Bolante said pursuing the case at the SC might only be construed as forum shopping, especially after the filing of a petition for habeas corpus by his son Owen before the Court of Appeals on Monday seeking his immediate release.

Bolante had asked the high court to issue a TRO and writ of preliminary injunction against the Dec. 12, 2005 order of arrest issued by the Senate committee on agriculture and food and the Blue Ribbon for being "unconstitutional, illegal, and contrary to existing jurisprudence."

He said the habeas corpus case is the more expeditious and effective remedy to prevent the continued deprivation of his liberty.

In the habeas corpus petition, Bolante challenged the validity of the Senate’s arrest warrant, claiming the arrest order can no longer be enforced as the body that issued it is already dissolved following the 2007 senatorial elections.

The petition was raffled to Court of Appeals Associate Justice Arturo Tayag.

But Justice Tayag, offering no explanation, declared that he was inhibiting himself.

A source said he got a call from a "powerful" person pressuring him to approve the petition.

The case will be raffled again at 10 a.m. today.

Bolante, tagged as the master architect of the P728 million fertilizer fund scam, fled to the US at the height of the investigation by the agriculture and food and the Blue Ribbon committees in 2005.

He was deported last Tuesday but had to be taken to the St. Luke’s Medical Center after he complained of chest pains.

Sen. Francis Escudero said Bolante could not invoke executive privilege.

Escudero, chair of the committee on justice, was reacting to the statement of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez that Bolante was covered by executive privilege.

"He (Bolante) will not be asked about his conversations with the President but his own actions or inactions about the fertilizer fund controversy," Escudero said.

Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said Malacañang would neither intervene nor invoke executive privilege for Bolante.

Dureza said Bolante is now a private citizen.

Sen. Pia Cayetano said Bolante has run out of excuses and should not abuse the latitude being accorded to him by the Senate.

"Evidently, it’s just Joc Joc or perhaps the masterminds of the scam who have been insisting on his continuous confinement in order to evade the Senate."

First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo was seen at the St. Luke’s but maintained it was for a regular check-up. Last Thursday, he also went to the hospital but denied seeing Bolante.

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said Malacañang and its allies will do everything and anything to prevent Bolante from testifying at the Senate.

Cruz said he does not believe that Bolante can be another Rodolfo "Jun" Lozada, star witness in the overpriced broadband deal, as the former does not have the guts to go against the administration. – With Dennis Gadil, Jocelyn Montemayor, JP Lopez and Gerard Naval