SEN. Francis Escudero said Wednesday the Senate should invite former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante after he was linked to the P5-billion loan of the Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. (Quedancor) purportedly for a swine distribution project.
“If his name was really mentioned in the Quedancor scam, then the blue ribbon (committee) should give him the opportunity to be heard and explain his side once he is deported from the United States,” Escudero told The Manila Times.
Bolante fled to the United States in 2006 instead of appearing before the Senate Committee on Agriculture’s investigation of the alleged scam involving the P728-million fertilizer fund that he had administered. He is expected to be deported to the Philippines after the United States rejected his petition for political asylum late last month.
Early this week, VERA Files released a three-part report on the multibillion-peso loans taken out by Quedancor.
Escudero said Bolante must appear before the Senate not necessarily on the fertilizer fund scam but also on the Quedancor issue being investigated by the blue ribbon.
According to the newspaper reports, Sen. Panfilo Lacson also asked the Senate to reopen its investigation of the fertilizer scam because, he said, Bolante ignored a subpoena to appear before a committee hearing.
He suggested that the Senate meet to discuss the reopening of the fertilizer probe and the issuance of a new arrest warrant on Bolante.
University of the Philippines law professor Harry Roque, who has been pursuing Bolante’s deportation, has asked Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, chair of the Blue Ribbon committee, to move for the reopening of the fertilizer fund investigation scam so that the standing warrant issued against Bolante can be enforced, according to Malaya.
“As soon as he sets foot in Philippine territory, he will be met by Senate sergeants-at-arms to serve the subpoena. I would also convince the Senate to talk to Hong Kong authorities to send (Bolante) back to the Philippines if the US would drop him there from whence he came from,” he said.
Roque said he will go to the US to monitor the proceedings for Bolante’s deportation.
But Sen. Edgardo Angara said the Senate Committee on Agriculture has completed its investigation of the fertilizer scam in the 13th Congress, and reopening the probe would be a waste of time.
“(Former) Sen. Jun Magsaysay had already submitted a committee report. The Senate’s work is done. The case is now with the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice,” Angara said. “It is out of the Senate’s hand. It is time to move on.”