House quad comm orders Cassandra Ong’s 30-day detention

Cassandra Li Ong, the authorized representative of Lucky South 99 Corp., will be detained at the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City for 30 days following a second contempt order by the House quad committee.

The detention order follows Ong’s repeatedly giving false testimony about her educational background.

Ong said that she went to Alternative Learning System (ALS) somewhere in 2016 or 2017 after lawmakers pressed her to explain a photo of her wearing a graduation gown.

She, however, claimed that she had difficulty remembering the name of the public school where she allegedly enrolled for ALS.

Abang Lingkod Partylist Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano, a co-chair of the quad committee, started to get irked with the inconsistencies in Ong’s responses.

“Even if you ask anyone here they know where they went to elementary school, where they went to high school,” Paduano stressed in Filipino.

Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop, the panel’s vice chair, joined Paduano in pressing Ong.

"I'm old already but I still know where I graduated from elementary school. Then you, you're still young, you don't know where you graduated from?” Acop remarked.

"Is it possible that you don't know which school you were enrolled in for the ALS? Or, maybe you didn’t go to ALS. Maybe you studied in another country," Paduano asserted.

Visibly fumed, Paduano subsequently moved to cite Ong in contempt—for the second time—which panel chair, Surigao del Norte Rep. Ace Barbers, approved.

Acop, meanwhile, moved that Ong be detained at the CIW—a similar motion made during the previous hearing which the panel later withdrew.

Ong has been detained at the House premises since her return from Indonesia. She was arrested there on 22 August with Sheila Guo, the alleged sister of dismissed Bamban mayor Alice Guo.

Ong will be transferred to the CIW after her initial 30-day contempt penalty ends on 26 September.

Ong’s first contempt order follows her repeated refusal to attend the legislative inquiry into the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO)-related crimes despite congressional subpoenas.

The quad comm has deemed Ong material to the inquiry being the representative of Lucky South, an illegal POGO firm in Porac, Pampanga, raided earlier this year over allegations of unlawful activities, such as torture and scam farms.

Ong is also an incorporator of the Whirlwind Corporation—a firm that leased land in Porac for Lucky South 99—owning at least a 58 percent stake.