Three pro-Duterte social media personalities risk being cited for contempt by the House of Representatives if they fail to show up again during the lower chamber's inquiry on fake news.

Surigao del Sur 2nd district Rep.thecź Johnny Pimentel said they will issue a subpoena to former anti-communist task force mouthpiece and red-tagger Lorraine Badoy, Sass Sasot and Jeffrey Celiz to compel them to attend the next scheduled hearing on April 8.

"The next step after subpoenas have been issued, if, still, the mentioned personalities will not attend the next hearing, the committee has no recourse but to issue a contempt order if they will not show on or if they do not attend on the next hearing," Pimentel said.

Former press secretary and social media personality Trixie Cruz-Angeles defended their failure to appear in the hearing. She said Badoy was out of the country, while Sasot was removed from the virtual hearing when she tried to attend the inquiry online.

Pimentel said the Zoom meeting was exclusive only for House members and not for resource persons.

Previously, several social media personalities, including Badoy, sought the Supreme Court (SC)'s temporary restraining order (TRO) on the House inquiry as it would violate their constitutional right to free speech.

"Petitioners implore upon the Supreme Court, to again swiftly act and exercise its constitutional power by striking down the assailed acts of the Respondents as being patent invasions of a constitutionally protected right to free speech, freedom of expression and of the press," they said.

But the High Court has yet to act on their petition.

Cruz-Angeles, who had snubbed two previous hearings, said she attended Friday's hearing because they were given a "compulsory order" to do so.

For Friday's hearing, Pimentel said they invited 18 bloggers to attend, but only 10 attended.