THE arrest warrant against former Commission on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista, a no-show in Monday’s Senate hearing, stays, pending his submission of a sworn affidavit answering all the allegations lodged against him before the panel, said Senator Francis Escudero.
Escudero issued the statement after lawyer Anacleto Diaz, Bautista’s counsel, said the former poll chief was begging the committee to recall the order of arrest issued against him.
Diaz attended the hearing and represented Bautista during Monday’s resumption of the Senate Committee on Banks, Financial Institutions and Currencies hearing in the Anti-Money Laundering Act chaired by Escudero.
Earlier, Escudero set conditions for lifting the warrant of arrest against the former Comelec chief.
He requested two conditions for lifting the warrant—either he submits a bank waiver or submit a detailed affidavit answering questions against him.
In Monday’s hearing, Escudero said the affidavit should be submitted to the Senate panel on March 26 and only after that could the committee issue a recommendation lifting the warrant of arrest.
However, Escudero said this would only be possible if the Senate president and the majority of the senators who voted in favor of the warrant agreed to recall it.
“If an affidavit was submitted, it means Bautista is cooperating and answering questions through his lawyer,” said Escudero,
When this happened, Escudero guaranteed he would recommend the lifting of his warrant but he would have to pass through a process.
“It should be supported by a majority of senators who agreed to the issuance of a warrant and should be signed by Senator Pimentel,” Escudero said, referring to the Senate president.
Instead of executing a waiver of the secrecy of bank deposits for his 33 bank accounts at the Luzon Development Bank, which are the subject of the committee’s probe, Bautista implored that he be allowed to submit a detailed affidavit on all the questions on his alleged unexplained wealth and possible violation of the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
The committee chairman said he was expecting that Bautista would be addressing all the issues and questions raised during the previous committee hearings, as the committee had furnished them a copy of all the transcripts of the past hearings.
“The affidavit should be evaluated before being weighed. If the anwers are lacking, we will ask for them in the next hearing. If there is none, we will prepare to come out with a committee report,” he said.
The Committee on Banks, Financial institutions and Currencies has ordered the arrest of Bautista after he failed to attend the previous hearings, the last of which was last Feb. 12, even after the committee has issued a subpoena against him.
Bautista’s counsel maintained that his client’s inability to appear in the previous hearing “is not due to any willful, knowing or deliberate act and/or omission on his part to disobey the subpoena issued by the committee or to ignore, evade, skip or snub the proceedings.”
Escudero said they were not compelling Bautista to personally appear before the committee since he was currently out of the country, but Escudero was anticipating his full cooperation in the succeeding proceedings through his counsel.
Moreover, Diaz said Bautista was not able to submit the affidavit during Monday’s hearing because he was still reviewing the documents and files “stolen” by his estranged wife Patricia Bautista that were recently returned to him by writ of habeas data issued by the Makati City Regional Trial Court.
The Anti-Money Laundering Council is also conducting its own separate investigation on the matter.