4 OVP execs cited in contempt for repeatedly skipping House probe

Four Office of the Vice President (OVP) officials have been cited in contempt for their repeated failure to show up before a House panel inquiry on the budget use of the OVP and the Department of Education when it was under Vice President Sara Duterte.

The four cited in contempt were Lemeul Ortonio, Gina Acosta, Sunshine Fajarda and Eduard Fajarda.

House Deputy Speaker Jayjay Suarez made the motion during a hearing on Monday after learning from the Committee Secretariat that the four already ignored the panel's invitations thrice and the subpoena ad testificandum five times.

"This (timeframe) is beyond what the committee would normally allow," Suarez said.

The contempt order against the four also carries a detention order at the Batasang Pambasa Complex in Quezon City.

An immigration lookout bulletin order has already been issued to these individuals by Immigration authorities due to their refusal to show up in a legislative inquiry.

The four were among the seven OVP officials who earlier submitted a position paper saying they would decline  to attend the House good government and public accountability committee's continuing investigation into the agency's budget utilization.

On the other hand, the House panel re-issued another subpoena ad testificandum to OVP chief of staff Zuleika Lopez for humanitarian reasons since she is in the United States to take care of an aunt who is in critical condition.

Lopez informed the committee of her situation through a letter.

In their position paper, they pointed out the right to decline the invitation, saying officials and personnel of the OVP were invited to attend in their capacity as resource persons.

"All things considered, we reiterate our previous position in the case of Calida v. Trillanes that 'persons invited to appear before a legislative inquiry do so as resource persons and not as accused in a criminal proceeding. Thus, they should be accorded respect and courtesy since they were under no compulsion to accept the invitation extended before them, yet they did so anyway. Their accommodation of a request should not in any way be repaid with insinuations,'" the position paper read.

"We are guided by this ruling of the Supreme Court in that invitations from the Committee may be declined, and that we have the right to respectfully refuse to participate in the proceedings," it added.

Uninvited guest

During the same hearing, the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability kicked out lawyer Emily Torrentira for showing up without presenting documents that she is allowed to represent the OVP. 

House Comm on Good Govt ordered OVP Legal Affairs Chief Atty Emily Rose Torrentira escorted out of today’s hearing because she was not invited, refused to take an oath, & there was no communication from the OVP that Torrentira is representing the office. @gmanews @gmanewsbreaking pic.twitter.com/y8ZykuAwu8

— Tina PanganibanPerez (@tinapperez) November 11, 2024

Torrentira identified herself as the chief of OVP's Legal Affairs Department and reasoned out that she refused to receive the subpoena ad testificandum for her colleagues by citing Rules of Court requiring physical presence to receive a subpoena.

Torrentira, however, refused to take her oath even as she maintained that she came to the hearing, despite being not invited, “to represent OVP as an institution.”

Abang Lingkod party-list Representative Stephen Paduano then made a motion to excuse Torrentira outside of the hearing, a motion unanimously approved by the members of the panel.

House Deputy Speaker Suarez said the committee cannot entertain Torrentira’s presence amid unclear circumstances of her attendance.

“She was not invited, she did not take her oath, and there was no communication to us as to her attendance. She may be posing for somebody else,” Suarez said. —KBK, GMA Integrated News