The House of Representatives' resident doctor was able to "certify" the medical condition of Lilia Cruz, the so-called "Sibuyas Queen" and focal person in the solons' ongoing agricultural hoarding-slash-price manipulation probe.

This was confirmed by Committee on Agriculture and Food Chairman and Quezon 1st district Rep. Wilfrido Mark Enverga on Tuesday night, March 21 following the panel's marathon hearing on the issue.

Earlier in the hearing, Enverga carried a motion by Cavite 4th district Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. and instructed House medical director, Dr. Luis Bautista to visit Cruz, alias Leah Cruz, at Metropolitan Medical Center in Sta. Cruz, Manila that same day.

Lawyer Kenneth Bryan Tegio, Cruz's legal counsel, said during the hearing that his client has been confined at the hospital since March 19. It was for that reason that she failed to face the committee Tuesday.

"Na-certify naman niya (Bautista), but we hope na mag-cooperate sila dito (He was able to certify it, but we hope that they would cooperate here)," Enverga said in a chance interview after the hearing on Tuesday night, referring to the resource persons invited to the probe.

Bautista, after reading a medical certificate Cruz sent to the panel, noted that the businesswoman had several medical conditions, including "bleeding". He did not elaborate.

Barzaga had wanted Cruz to personally attend the hearing, which was launched last month in order to get to the bottom of absurdly high prices of onions particularly during the last quarter of 2022.

"Tulad ng sinabi ko seryoso po especially si Speaker Martin Romualdez na maabot natin kung ako talaga ang mga pangyayaring naganap noong Disyembre na nagpahirap sa ating kababayan (Like what I've said, we're serious, especially Speaker Martin Romualdez, in our goal to find out what really happened last December that became a burden to our people)," Enverga said.

"So mahalaga po na sa susunod na hearing, present sila. May pasubali na nga kami ano to some of the resource persons na nagpakita noong huli na in the event they do not appear with no valid reason, they can be cited for contempt (So it's important that they're present in the next hearing. We've already warned some of the resource persons that in the event they do not appear with no valid reason, they can be cited for contempt)," he further said.

The panel has already cited five individuals in contempt and ordered their detention in the House. This included two last night in Michael Ang and George Ong, officials of Super 5--a cold storage facility.

Cruz attended the first two hearings of the committee on the hoarding issue. She has now no-showed the following three hearings.

Tuesday's panel hearing lasted nine and-a-half hours.