Former Commission on Elections chairman Andres Bautista should return to the country when the Senate resumes its probe into the latter’s alleged ill-gotten wealth on Monday, March 19, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said Friday.
Roque said if the former Comelec chief believed he has nothing to hide, Bautista should come home and face the allegations against him, being a lawyer.
“You know, flight is an admission of guilt,” said Roque, a former party-list congressman who was among the lawmakers who pushed for Bautista’s impeachment last year, in an online interview.
Bautista resigned, but the Senate ordered his arrest for failing to attend the chamber’s hearings into allegations of his unexplained wealth amounting to around P1 billion. According to his estranged wife Patricia Bautista, it included over P300 million in 35 bank accounts with the Luzon Development Bank.
In the same interview, Roque admitted wanting to run for a Senate seat in the 2019 elections but conceded he didn’t have the resources necessary for such a campaign.
“Am I disappointed? Of course, I am. Do I want to run? Yes, I do,” the spokesman said. “But the reality is 14 months from now, you need P500 million [to run a senatorial campaign]—that’s minimum.”
Previously, Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said President Rodrigo Duterte is supporting the possible Senate runs of Roque, top aide Christopher “Bong” Go, and political adviser Francis Tolentino.
Roque, while thankful for Duterte’s gesture, said he faces the reality of needing to raise “a lot of money” for political ads alone.
“I have no illusions. I know I was born a normal person. I know that possibly I would need more time if I want to raise that amount. There will be other chances, but [the 2019 polls] is 12 months from now”•or 14 months from now, so I wouldn’t know where to get that P500 million,” he added.
Bautista, who has been abroad since last November, said he has never received an invitation from the Senate banks, financial institutions, and currencies committee.
He claimed he is exploring “professional opportunities and, more importantly, [to] seek assistance for certain medical challenges.”
Senator Francis Escudero, who chairs the banks committee, said the ex-Comelec chairman needs to submit either a bank waiver or a detailed affidavit answering the allegations hurled against him before the arrest order will be lifted. The affidavit should be sworn before the consul of the country where Bautista is staying, Escudero added.