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House good government committee chairman Joel Chua insists that Congress has the discretion to summon ‘executive officials who are most familiar with’ executive operations
MANILA, Philippines – Some staff members of Vice President Sara Duterte who were invited by the House of Representatives to grace the congressional inquiry into her office’s alleged misuse of funds skipped the latest hearing on Thursday, October 17.
Their absence prompted the good government committee to subpoena six individuals, compelling them to attend the next hearing. Failure to do so would result in a contempt citation and and arrest order against them.
The following staff are:
- Zuleika Lopez, Office of the Vice President (OVP) chief of staff
- Lemuel Ortonio, OVP assistant chief of staff and bids and awards chairperson
- Rosalynne Sanchez – OVP director for administrative and financial services
- Gina Acosta – OVP special disbursing officer
- Juleita Villadelrey – OVP chief accountant
- Edward Fajarda – former Department of Education special disbursing officer, now with the OVP
The six, along with 13 other OVP staff, sent the media on Thursday a position paper justifying their absence.
“We respectfully take the position that the deliberation or hearing is unnecessary and that the attendance of the officials and personnel of the Office of the Vice President is therefore not needed,” the paper read.
The OVP staff members insisted that the inquiry, which looks into how Duterte exhausted hundreds of millions of pesos in confidential funds in 2022 and 2023, is not in aid of legislation.
“It lacks clear legislative objective or contemplated legislation that is expected as an outcome of the deliberations. It has been the consistent position of the Office that a draft bill for consideration must at least be attached to the invitation for us to be informed of the aid that we can provide to the deliberations,” they said.
The paper also asserted the government workers’ right as resource persons, saying they are “not accused as in a criminal proceeding,” and therefore “have the right to respectfully refuse to participate in the proceedings.”
The other signatories in the paper include:
- Norman Baloro
- Winnie Dayego
- Kelvin Gerome Teñido
- Jiezel Cone Asia
- Rolmar Basalan
- Maria Laiza Pamittan-Frogoso
- Ma. Constancia-Lim
- Chris Sorongon
- Michael Angelo Saavedra
- Maximo Alexis Tan
- Alan Tanjuakio
- Regina Rosa Tecson
Good government committee chairperson Joel Chua reiterated that the congressional inquiry that his panel is overseeing is valid.
“It would be incongruous to hold that the power of inquiry does not extend to executive officials who are the most familiar with and informed on executive operations. It is only appropriate to summon the executive employees who are more knowledgeable about the transactions they have entered into,” he said. – Rappler.com
