The House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability has issued a final ultimatum against subpoenaed officials of the Office of the Vice President to appear at Monday’s probe into alleged fund mismanagement of the office or they will face arrest.

The summon follows their repeated refusals to attend the investigation notwithstanding show-cause orders. 

The officials subject to subpoena are former Department of Education (DepEd) 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.

Of the seven, only Sanchez and Villadelrey have confirmed attendance at Monday’s hearing, according to panel chairperson Joel Chua.

Chua lamented that the committee has been lenient and this time they are forced to use its iron fist if they defy for the fifth time their summon.

“The committee has summoned these officials multiple times, yet they continue to disregard our lawful requests to appear,” Chua said.

“These absences reflect a blatant disregard for the authority of Congress and are unacceptable. If they fail to appear again, we are prepared to issue orders for their arrest,” he added.

The panel is currently probing the alleged irregularities in the use of P612.5 million in confidential funds allocated to the OVP (P500 million) and the Department of Education (P112.5 million) during Vice President Sara Duterte's stint as its secretary.

To recall, Duterte headed the DepEd for nearly two years until she resigned on 19 July.

The congressional probe took a contentious turn after lawmakers learned that Lopez fled the country on 4 November,  a day before she was scheduled to appear before the panel. 

The committee previously requested the Department of Justice to place Lopez and other OVP officials to issue an immigration lookout bulletin amid concerns they might evade the investigation. 

While the bulletin does not prohibit departure, it heightened the committee’s concerns about their non-compliance.

The OVP previously confirmed that Lopez’s travel authority had Duterte’s go-signal. Lawmakers the departure was “very suspicious” regardless of whether it involved personal matters.

The Commission on Audit has flagged a significant portion of the P612.5 million secret funds and even disallowed P73.287 million of the P125 million that the OVP spent in merely 11 days during the last quarter of 2022, Duterte’s first year in office.

The panel has invited the seven officials to shed light on their supposed role in the purported fund mismanagement, with the Fajarda couple said to be at the center of the cash envelopes allegedly given by Duterte to DepEd officials on top of their monthly salary.