Release me, Ligot asks senators

After a day in detention at the Senate, former military comptroller Jacinto Ligot appealed to the Senate blue ribbon committee to release him from its custody. Ligot made the appeal in a letter, after the committee cited him in contempt and ordered his arrest Thursday, radio dzBB's Nimfa Ravelo reported. Ligot's wife Erlinda was also cited in contempt but was not ordered arrested for “humanitarian reasons," said Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, chairman of the blue ribbon committee. In his letter, Ligot insisted that he was not faking an illness just so he would not need to attend Thursday's hearing on alleged irregularities in the Armed Forces of the Philippines. He said he was really feeling sick Wednesday and felt he had the flu, and that he felt better Thursday supposedly because the medicines he took were taking effect. Ligot claimed he did not go to the Senate anymore on that day because he was hypertensive and diabetic, and he was taking insulin. Besides, he said he had been "cooperative" in responding to subpoenas from the blue ribbon committee.

On the other hand, Ligot's lawyer Rafael Zialcita said they are weighing their options on what to do next, hinting the case may reach the courts. An earlier dzBB report said Ligot's lawyers included a lawyer of former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn "Jocjoc" Bolante - Antonio Zulueta. Zulueta served as a lawyer of Bolante when he faced the Senate over a P728-million fertilizer scam where the funds for buynig fertilizer allegedly went to the campaign kitty of then administration presidential bet Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2004. Mrs. Arroyo had denied the allegation. Also on Friday, at least two other lawyers of Ligot – Zialcita and Pocholo del Rosario – went to the Senate as well. — RSJ, GMA News