SC grants Bolante habeas plea

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday ordered the Court of Appeals (CA) to raffle former Agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante’s habeas corpus petition stemming from his arrest by the Senate last December 3. In a three-page resolution, the SC likewise ordered the appellate court to schedule the hearing on Bolante’s petition on Friday, December 12. The high court also ordered Bolante to appear in the CA hearing. Bolante’s camp last Friday filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus before the SC, asking the court to order the former Agriculture undersecretary's release and declare the Senate arrest illegal. In their petition, Bolante's lawyers said there is no reason to cite Bolante in contempt on the basis that he allegedly lied during the past three hearings of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee on the P728-million fertilizer fund scam. Bolante's camp said the Senate blue ribbon committee has no authority to arrest him since there is no legislative purpose for the Senate hearings on the fertilizer fund scam. The petition also argued that the committee denied Bolante due process because the former Agriculture undersecretary was not given the chance to explain his allegedly false testimonies. Cited as respondents in the petition were Senate sergeant-at-arms Jose Balajadia Jr, Blue Ribbon committee chair Richard Gordon, and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. Bolante is tagged as the architect of the fertilizer fund mess where funds allotted for poor farmers were allegedly diverted to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s campaign kitty in the 2004 elections. Amended petition The latest writ for habeas corpus petition is on top of the other petition filed by Bolante’s son Owen. In the habeas corpus suit filed before the CA, Owen challenged the validity of the Senate’s arrest warrant, claiming the arrest order issued by the 13th Congress in 2005 is already functus officio, or can no longer be enforced as the body who issued it was dissolved following the 2007 senatorial elections. But the Court of Appeals on November 28 remained unconvinced into giving temporary relief to Bolante by acting on the petition of Owen. The CA justices questioned why Bolante’s lawyers did not name as respondents the senators who issued the arrest order against him on December 12, 2005, saying holding senators to answer questions on their issuance of the arrest order against Bolante would have solved a lot of problems. Associate Justice Teresita Dy-Liacco Flores admitted that the court finds it difficult to resolve the habeas corpus case because the Senate itself was not implicated and that only sergeant-at-arms retired Major General Jose Balajadia was named respondent. Flores further said that the court cannot in good faith order the relief of the two senate guards assigned to secure Bolante because “(the) court will encroach on the authority of the party that is not being made a defendant on this case." With this, Bolante’s lawyers on Tuesday amended their earlier petition and included Gordon and Enrile as respondents. - with Carlo Lorenzo, GMANews.TV