House orders detention of Cagayan Gov. Mamba over absence in hearing

The House joint committee on public accounts and suffrage and electoral reforms has ordered the detention of Cagayan Governor Manuel Mamba over his repeated failure to attend the inquiry on alleged illegal expenditures of the local government during the 2022 campaign period.

This developed after the panel carried the motion of Antipolo Representative Romeo Acop to cite Mamba in contempt, a move made months after the joint committee launched the inquiry on the Cagayan governor last May 31.

“Since the governor of Cagayan was not able to obey the processes of these two committees, in the spirit of equitable provision of the law, may I move to cite the governor of Cagayan, Mr. Chair,” Acop said.

In a phone interview, Mamba said he sought permission to be excused from the hearing to attend to his province's needs amid a coming super typhoon.

Under the House rules, a person cited in contempt will be detained for 10 days, unless the committee amends its decision.

Acop’s motion was carried by the committee with no objections, with members citing that Mamba exercised undue interference when he refused to issue travel orders to other officials of the Cagayan provincial government who were also invited to attend the said congressional inquiry.

Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Adiong, one of the lawmakers who voted in favor of Mamba’s detention, said the committee has already given too many chances for Mamba to show up to no avail.

“The committee has been so lenient in the past several months,” Adiong said.

“If individuals continue to deliberately fail to honor the invitation of this committee, that is in violation of the Constitution which gives this committee the power to investigate,” he added.

Mamba said that during the May hearing, he was asked questions that "covered by sub judice rule, related to those pending before the Comelec, Supreme Court (SC) and Ombudsman."

"I said this is sub judice and I might be held in contempt even by the SC, kaya I refused to answer some of their questions kaya inexcuse naman nila ako. So, I was just wondering ano ngayon ito," he said.

Asked about his alleged refusal to issue travel authority to the local officials, he said he asked for the officials to be excused because a super typhoon was coming.

"Some 6,000 people lost their homes...we have to take care of this.  We sent a letter to postpone our attendance, we want to attend next time.  I felt that the priority should be how to respond to the typhoon," Mamba said.—LDF, GMA Integrated News