ADMINISTRATION Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago yesterday urged former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn "Joc Joc" Bolante to appear at the probe on the fertilizer fund mess and should not wait to be arrested by the Senate.

"Kung wala siyang kasalanan, di magpakita siya. Hindi siya pwedeng mamili kung saan siya lilitaw," Santiago said.

She accused Bolante of forum shopping when he filed petitions before several courts.

"That is forum shopping. Sa Ombudsman di pa siya nakabista, di pa nag-preliminary investigation. Sa Senado, may direct examination. So doon talaga makikita ang side niya," she said.

Santiago said she believes there are no legal impediments to bar the Senate from re-opening the case.

She further said that the Senate is a continuing body, which means the warrant of arrest issued by the Senate in the 13th Congress against Bolante is still valid.

Santiago chided Bolante for using his health condition, sleep apnea, heartburn and fluctuating blood pressure, among others, as an excuse to evade the inquiry.

"Those are very normal diseases of old age and they cannot possibly be called devastating much less terminal or life threatening." Bolante was brought to St. Luke’s Medical Center as he complained of chest pains immediately after his arrival from the United States last Oct. 28.

Santiago asked colleagues not to grandstand, saying cross-examination on Bolante should be left to the proper courts.

The Blue Ribbon committee will reopen this week the investigation on the fertilizer fund mess.

Minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. expressed dismay over the reported decision of the Office of the Ombudsman to dismiss the graft charges filed by the late community journalist Marlene Esperat against Bolante and 10 others in connection with the fertilizer fund scam.

Pimentel said there was ample evidence of misuse of the fertilizer fund in the form of overpricing, ghost deliveries, purchase of wrong kind of fertilizer and diversion of funds to the 2004 election campaign of President Arroyo.

He said these anomalies were proven and supported by documentary evidence in the investigation by the Senate committee on agriculture and food in 2005.

The evidence includes findings of the Commission on Audit and written and oral testimonies of farmers who were supposed to receive the fertilizer but did not.

Pimentel said he does not think that the dismissal of the charges will be credible and acceptable. He said Esperat, a former employee of the Department of Agriculture, was slain inside her residence in Tacurong City in March 2005 to cover up the fertilizer fraud.