Vice President Sara Duterte (Facebook)

The House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability has given one final chance for seven officials of the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) to appear before the panel, after skipping the ongoing inquiry for the fourth time.

During the hearing on Tuesday, Nov. 5, the committee issued another subpoena ad testificandum to the seven OVP officials to compel their attendance in the next hearing.

The officials are as follows: 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 (SDO) Gina Acosta, Chief Accountant Juleita Villadelrey, former Department of Education (DepEd) Assistant Secretary Sunshine Charry Fajarda, and SDO Edward Fajarda.

Abang Lingkod Party-list Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano, who made the motion, acknowledged that the panel was being lenient on this matter as the rules of  House of Representatives provide a harsher penalty.

Based on the lower chamber’s procedures in governing inquiries in aid of legislation, the committee is allowed to cite in contempt invited persons for “refusal without legal excuse to obey summons”.

In a position paper received by the panel on Tuesday morning, the OVP officials cited the delayed transmission of the subpoena issued last hearing, as well as concerns surrounding the panel’s jurisdiction, as their reasons for declining to appear in the hearing.

“Now, for this committee to be safe, we respectfully move to once again issue subpoena ad testificandum to all those mentioned name to be present in the next hearing,” said Paduano.

Panel chairperson Manila 3rd district Rep. Joel Chua approved the motion after hearing no objections.

“We will just issue re-issue another subpoena, with the stern warning that the next time that they fail to attend, we will be constrained to issue a much heavier penalty,” Chua explained.

Manila 6th district Rep. Bienvenido “Benny” Abante Jr., a senior vice chairman of the panel, was quick to assert that if the seven OVP officials fail to attend in the next hearing, he will not hesitate to cite them in contempt.

“This is the fourth time [they skipped the hearing]. This is unfair to these people here who have attended every time that they’re called upon,” said Abante.

“And then we’re just going to do nothing about these people here who have been invited four times? It’s unfair for us too that we are here in this hearing and these people are kept on insulting us,” he stressed.

During his interpellation, Abante speculated that Vice President Sara Duterte herself asked the officials not to attend the ongoing inquiry.

The good government committee has been investigating the OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd) under Duterte’s tenure as secretary over alleged misuse of confidential and intelligence funds.

Whereabouts of OVP officials  

Also in Tuesday’s hearing, the committee learned that Duterte’s chief of staff OVP Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez had left for the United States (US).

Lopez reportedly passed through the immigration counter at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 at 7:31 pm on Monday and departed on Philippine Airlines flight PR 102 bound for Los Angeles, California, at approximately 10:25 pm.

Lopez is among the seven officials subpoenaed by the panel to testify.

Chua, the panel chairperson, earlier requested the Department of Justice (DOJ) to place the OVP officials on an immigration lookout bulletin after his committee received information suggesting they might be preparing to leave the country.

A lookout bulletin serves only for monitoring and does not prohibit a subject from departing the Philippines.

Meanwhile, five of the six other officials are still in the country, according to their latest travel records.

Only SDO Gina Acosta’s status remains unclear due to her having multiple namesakes.

Two more names

Lanao del Sur 1st district Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, during his interpellation, moved to also subpoena two more OVP officials, specifically Budget Division Chief Edelyn Rabago and Chief Administrative Officer Kelvin Gerome Teñido.

They also no-no-showed the hearing without submitting an excuse letter.

“Their testimonies would be material for this committee to arrive in a sound judgment once we file our committee report,” said Adiong, referring to the two as “career officials”.