Ligot under Senate custody for contempt

MANILA, Philippines - Former military comptroller Jacinto Ligot was arrested last night and detained at the Senate following the issuance of an order citing him for contempt.

The Senate cited Ligot and his wife Erlinda for contempt for feigning sickness when they failed to attend yesterday’s hearings of the Blue Ribbon committee investigating alleged corruption in the military.

The Senate order also cited the couple for using their lawyers to issue excuses “which have turned out to be a falsity.”

Blue Ribbon committee chairman Sen. Teofisto Guingona III recommended the Ligot couple be cited for contempt after faking sickness in an apparent attempt to evade the hearing.

Aside from Guingona, those who signed the order were Senate President Pro-Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, Sens. Gregorio Honasan, Franklin Drilon, Sergio Osmeña, Francis Pangilinan, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Ralph Recto, Pia Cayetano, and Ramon Revilla Jr.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile signed after nine senators had signed the contempt order.

In effect, the former general would be detained until he answers all the questions of the senators regarding the issue being investigated by the committee.

Ligot was fetched at his residence in Taguig by a team led by retired general Jose Balajadia, the Senate sergeant-at-arms.

“He (Ligot) did not resist arrest,” Balajadia said.

“Whatever it is, he was pressured to come with us because of the contempt and detention order,” he added.

Ligot underwent a mandatory medical checkup before he was detained in an air-conditioned room with no windows located at the basement parking area of the Senate offices at the GSIS building in Pasay City.

Guingona explained the committee decided to spare Mrs. Ligot from detention in the Senate for humanitarian and health reasons.

Enrile said the order of detention against Mrs. Ligot was withheld for humanitarian reasons since she is suffering from hypertension.

“But Gen. Ligot has no illness as per our doctor (Senate physician Mariano Blancia),” Enrile pointed out.

Enrile directed the Senate’s Office of the Sergeant-At-Arms (OSAA) to immediately place Ligot under detention “within 24 hours upon receipt of the order.”

“They (OSAA) are going to implement it at once,” he said.

Enrile stressed the arrest of the Ligots should serve as a warning to future resource persons not to disregard the power of the Senate.

“I will not hesitate to exercise the power of the Senate because I have to maintain the integrity and responsibility of the Senate as an institution,” he said.

Enrile noted Guingona had been complaining that the couple was absent during the hearing, sending word that they were sick.

Guingona said the Ligots failed to present any medical certificate as proof to justify their absence.

‘Malingering’

Apart from the Ligot couple, former Armed Forces chief Roy Cimatu, retired Col. Rafael Lleno and former military accountant Generoso del Castillo were also absent during the hearing.

Cimatu sent a letter informing the committee that he needed to go to the province to attend to his ailing father, while Lleno had medical consultations, being a kidney transplant patient in Cagayan de Oro.

Del Castillo, on the other hand, claimed he was also sick.

The committee received a letter from Rafael Zialcita, one of the lawyers of the Ligots, saying the couple were too sick to attend the hearing.

Zialcita stated Mrs. Ligot is “apparently suffering from severe palpitations and acute gastroenteritis” while the retired general was down with the flu.

“If indeed they are sick, we will accept the manifestation of the lawyer. On the other hand, if they are not, then I regret that we in the Senate must exercise our coercive power,” Enrile said.

Enrile remarked that he could not allow anybody to ridicule the Senate by going around the rules, using sickness as an alibi for not attending the hearing.

Enrile then ordered Blancia to check out the Ligots if indeed they are too sick to attend.

“In the course of life, it’s possible that both are sick. It is also possible that they are not, that they are malingering,” he said.

Blancia led a medical team to check on the Ligots at their residence in Taguig.

Sources said Blancia and a five-man medical team easily spotted the Ligot residence, which had a sign on the gate that read: “This unit has been closed due to security reasons.”

But when they knocked, somebody from the household let them in.

Blancia said Mrs. Ligot indeed consulted a doctor last Wednesday and was given medical prescription for diarrhea and palpitations.

When he made a separate examination yesterday, Blancia said Mrs. Ligot’s blood pressure was normal.

“All our examinations were normal,” Blancia said. He described Mrs. Ligot as either anxious or nervous when he conducted the medical checkup.

“She could have attended,” Blancia later told the senators when Estrada asked him to elaborate.

As for the former general, Blancia said he had no fever when he conducted the medical examination, but noted his blood pressure was higher than normal.

Blancia also noted Ligot had been complaining of nasal congestion.

“Of the two, Mr. Ligot was more healthy to attend (the hearing). His health condition was better than Mrs. Ligot, but both could have attended,” Blancia said.

The contempt order was different from the move sought by Estrada to cite the Ligot couple in contempt for refusing to answer questions from the senators pertaining to their alleged illegal wealth and the travels of Mrs. Ligot.

The couple repeatedly invoked their right against self-incrimination in refusing to answer questions from senators during the hearing.

Car as a gift

Even as the couple were absent during the hearing, the senators turned to former budget officer Lt. Col. George Rabusa, former Armed Forces chief Gen. Diomedio Villanueva, and Col. Cirilo Thomas Donato Jr., the former comptroller of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), questioning them on when the alleged conversion of funds in the military took place.

Donato belied Rabusa’s allegations that he was privy to the giving out of extra allowances to some selected military personnel and that he was receiving P300,000 to P500,000 a month while serving as deputy budget officer.

When Donato was designated as ISAFP comptroller, Rabusa said his former subordinate was instrumental in the illegal practice of cash conversion at the AFP involving millions of pesos.

At one time during the hearing, Donato also admitted getting a secondhand Honda Civic from Rabusa as a gift but he did not see anything wrong with it then.

On the other hand, AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta Jr. said the military would not pursue any action against Donato.

Mabanta said they have to gather more information to validate Rabusa’s claims.

“We have to check our data if this is indeed true. As we said, this happened 10 years ago and much of those discussed do not hold true anymore,” Mabanta said.

“The investigation it is still ongoing. We will be collating all statements and examine what needs to be done… we will have to wait for it (Senate probe) to be terminated,” he added.

According to Mabanta, it was the first time he heard about the allegations of cash gifts to officers involved in the conversion of funds. –With Alexis Romero