Three people--including two officials of a cold storage facility--were cited in contempt Tuesday, March 7 by the House Committee on Agriculture and Food during the panel's ongoing inquiry on the agricultural hoarding issue.
This, after the investigating solons--particularly SAGIP Party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta--got fed up with being taken for a ride by the resource persons.
It was Marcoleta who moved to cite in contempt on Tuesday afternoon Argo Trading President Efren Zoleta Jr., operations manager John Patrick Sevilla, and lawyer John Ryan Cruz.
Cold storage firms like Argo Trading are believed to be key in the alleged hoarding-price manipulation set-up; for several commtitee hearings now, House members have been trying to get accurate onion inventory figures and answers from them in order to pinpoint which part of the supply-demand chain is being exploited by hoarders.
But Marcoleta, in his interpellation of Sevilla, didn't get these kinds of answers. In fact, Argo chose not to submit the documents that the committee had asked of them. Zoleta and Cruz were absent altogether.
According to Sevilla, his legal counsel, Cruz, advised him to tell the House panel that the sought service agreements cannot be submitted due to a confidentiality agreement in the contract.
This caused the panel to press Sevilla to cough up the documents. And when he did, the congressmen didn't find any confidentiality clause. Needless to say, they didn't like the operations, manager's attempt to dupe them.
“I was requiring them to submit to us service agreements..His (Sevilla) lawyer advised them not to give the information sought by this committee because of the confidentiality clause in the service agreement. But it turned out…there is no confidentiality clause," noted Marcoleta.
"So because of the outright lie given to us…I move that Mr. Efren Zoleta--and on the assumption that the lawyer indeed provided the legal advise to them, kung talagang totoo, isama na natin siya doon sa contempt (if it's really true, then let's also cite him in contempt),” he added.
Quezpn 1st district Rep. Wilfrido Mark Enverga, the committee chairman, then facilitated a vote to determine whether or not to uphold Marcoleta's motion.
Thirty-five members out of 49 voted in favor of the contempt motion--two more than the required 33 votes. And so, the motion was carried.
“I humbly request to reconsider because the service agreement we sent on the hard copy there was no watermark but in the soft copy that I sent it says strictly confidential,” Sevilla said in a last-ditch effort to save himself from detention.
To this, Marcoleta countered: “Wag na kayong magpalusot baka lalo lang lumaki yung contempt ninyo (Stop making excuses or else your contempt charge will become more severe)."
"Wag niyo kaming gawing tanga dito. Gagawin ninyo kaming tanga rito ( Don't make us look like fools here. You're just making us look like fools here….Hindi kami tanga, yung nilagay mong (we're not fools, the thing you said that) this is ‘strictly confidential’ does not bind this committee.”
It didn't take long for House Sergeant-at-Arms Napoleon Taas to personally fetch Sevilla from the hearing and take him to his detention area in the House.
Enverga said House rules allow the panel to detain up to 10 days a resource peeson who has been cited in contempt.
As for Zoleta and Cruz, Enverga instructed Taas to locate and arrest the two.
The agri-hoarding probe is still ongoing as of this posting.