OVP officials snub House probe anew

Seven officials in the Office of the Vice President (OVP) who were the subjects of a subpoena skipped — for the fourth time — the congressional investigation into the office’s alleged misuse of funds, with one of them fleeing the country ahead of the hearing.

In a position paper submitted to the House Committee on Good Governance and Public Accountability on Tuesday, the officials asserted that the subpoena was not valid and the hearing was not in aid of legislation and violated their rights.

They also raised the jurisdictional issue and their right to decline the invitation, and the sub judice rule because of a pending case before the Supreme Court on the OVP’s alleged questionable use of P125 million in confidential funds.

The signatories to the document were the individuals subpoenaed by the House panel, namely, former Department of Education assistant secretary Sunshine Charry Fajarda, special disbursing officer Edward Fajarda, OVP chief of staff Zuleika Lopez, assistant chief of staff and bids and awards committee chair Lemuel Ortonio, administrative and financial services director Rosalynne Sanchez, special disbursing officer Gina Acosta, and chief accountant Julieta Villadelrey.

“We observed that the subject matter of the proceedings had substantially changed, and discussions were no longer germane to the original matter for referral,” they said.

“This provides an unfair setting for resource persons. It is akin to a violation of their right to due process for lack of proper notice of the definite scope of their appearance,” they added.

An immigration lookout bulletin was issued against the seven over the weekend amid concerns they would fly out of the country to avoid the congressional investigation.

Flight to Los Angeles

Acting Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Vicente Uncad, however, said they did not receive the request before Lopez left Manila for Los Angeles, California last Sunday evening, two days before the scheduled hearing on Tuesday.

The committee issued the subpoena on 2 and 4 November against the OVP officials following their repeated refusal to attend the hearing despite show-cause orders.

The officials, however, argued that the subpoena “is not valid,” noting that it was “issued for a past 28 October hearing.”

“Given these circumstances, the subpoena issued to the OVP executives can no longer be legally served nor obeyed as the scheduled hearing date of 28 October 2024 was reset until further notice in an earlier notice given,” the officials said.

A visibly irked panel vice chair Bienvenido Abante Jr. warned the OVP officials they would be cited in contempt if they kept “insulting” the committee by snubbing the hearings.

“Mr. Chair, if they will not come for the fifth time, then I might make a motion to hold them in contempt because this is the fourth time. This is unfair to these people here who have attended every time they were called,” he said.

Abante, along with other panel members, suspected the seven officials were following instructions from higher-ups to skip the investigation.

“It seems to me they are avoiding having to explain to this committee how the government funds were used,” Abante said.

Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Adiong, meanwhile, said that “refusal to attend a committee hearing constitutes a violation under Article 150 of the Revised Penal Code” which imposes a penalty of aresto mayor or jail time of one to six months.

Nonetheless, committee chairperson Joel Chua ruled they will issue another subpoena “with a stern warning that the next time they fail to attend, we will be constrained to mete out a much heavier penalty.”