Contempt order vs. Roque shows House doesn’t give special treatment —solons

The contempt order issued against former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque proves that the House of Representatives will not give VIPs or even former members special treatment, House leaders said Friday.

House dangerous drugs panel chairperson Ace Barbers and House committee on public order and safety chairperson Dan Fernandez made the statement after Roque said that citing him for contempt and detaining him for 24 hours was unfair.

Roque, who is facing scrutiny over his supposed engagement as a lawyer for a POGO firm, said it was an honest mistake when he reasoned that the House probe coincided with a court hearing he had to attend.

“We don’t issue contempt orders on a whim. We are being consistent. In my committee we also issued contempt orders, from the lower ranked police and military officials to the higher ups. And if you become complacent with [implementing] the existing rules...lagi mo na lamang pagbibigyan ‘yung pasensya na lang, pasensya na lang. Then, magiging ano eh, ‘yung mga tao, babalewalain ‘yung ginagawa naming investigation,” Fernandez said in a press conference.

(If you treat people with kid gloves because they said sorry...people will not take our investigation seriously.)

“How can we craft, amend laws when resource persons are disrespecting the committee? That's why we are trying to be consistent on what we are doing: For us to be believable and productive. Otherwise, we won’t accomplish anything,” he added.

Barbers, on the other hand, said issuance of contempt orders is always based on merit.

“Based on our appreciation of his explanation, we don’t believe that it was a matter of an honest mistake. That is why he was cited in contempt. Attorney Roque knew that our hearing was set for August 16 and when we checked, there is no scheduled August 16 hearing in a Manila court. So anong ibig sabihin nun? Ganun ba kadali na magdahilan sa committee? At dapat ba ang pagbigyan ng committee 'yung ganung klaseng pagrarason?" he said.

(What does that mean? That it is that easy to make an excuse before the committee? Should the committee buy that reason?)

“If there was a violation of the rules of the House, then that is a contemptible act. If there was a contemptible act among our resource persons, then a penalty must be imposed. That is what is in our rules. If we won’t be fair in meting penalties everytime there is a violation committed, then nobody will believe and respect us. And so we stood up , we were firm and we were consistent with our decision to cite him in contempt,” Barbers added.

Since Roque received his contempt order at 9 pm on August 22, Barbers said he will be released on August 23 at 9 pm. 

During the August 22 hearing, lawmakers also questioned the significant increase in the assets of Biancham Holdings and Trading owned by Roque from P125,000 in 2014, P3.125 million in 2015, and P67.7 million in 2018. 

Roque said this was because his family sold their P1.8 hectares lot in Parañaque.

The lawmakers, however, are yet to be convinced and ordered Roque to submit his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth, as well as Income Tax Return to be discussed in the next hearing.—AOL, GMA Integrated News