Cavite 4th district Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. has demanded complete physical attendance from the resource persons of the House Committee on Agriculture and Food's inquiry on the alleged hoarding of agricultural products in the country.
Barzaga made a motion to this effect during the committee's initial hearing on the issue Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 8.
"Mr. Chairman, considering the intricate issues which we are discussing right now, and its importance to the life of every Filipino, I most respectfully move that all the resource persons in the next scheduled hearing be required to appear personally," the veteran lawmaker said, referring to the next scheduled hearing on Feb. 14, or Valentine's Day.
"And in the event that they would not be able to appear personally, they should make a written explanation to justify their absence. Otherwise, if not satisfied , I would be moving for contempt," warned Barzaga.
"Because the issues are very important, this is a motu proprio investigation," he said. The motion was promptly seconded, and then carried by panel chairman and Quezon 1st district Rep. Wilfrido Mark Enverga.
A person cited in contempt by the House may be ordered detained by the legislative chamber until he or she cooperates with the solons.
Barzaga gave these remarks after only a handful of the invited resource persons--mostly from government agencies like the Department of Agriculture (DA) and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)--bothered to attend the panel investigation in person. A good number of the resource persons joined the discussion via Zoom, or videoconferencing.
In the defense of the resource persons, the Wednesday meeting was organized in very short notice; the Feb. 14 hearing was supposed to be the initial hearing of the so-called hoarding probe.
But this didn't stop the House members from expressing their disappointment over the quality--or lack thereof--of the discussions, especially since the attending agency officials either couldn't answer their question directly or didn't have the necessary data with them.
Many of them said they would just bring the information being asked of them by the solons "next Tuesday".