MANILA – Seven officials from the Office of the Vice President (OVP) once again skipped the House of Representatives’ good government and public accountability committee’s probe into the agency’s budget utilization on Tuesday.
In a position paper, OVP chief of staff Zuleika Lopez, Lemuel Ortonio, Atty. Rosalynne Sanchez, Julieta Villadelrey, Gina Acosta, Atty. Sunshine Fajarda, and Edward Fajarda requested the House panel to terminate its inquiry on the matter.
According to them, they have the right to decline the invitation since 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 vs Trillanes that ‘persons invited to appear before a legislative inquiry do so as resource persons and not as accused in a criminal proceeding,’” the paper stated.
“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,’” it added.
“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,” the OVP officials further said.
They also pointed out that the House inquiry invitations were sent on a holiday on November 1, and that they were only able to read it only on November 4, a day before the hearing.
The seven OVP officials were subject of the subpoena ad testificandum issued by the House good government and public accountability committee for refusing to attend the probe on how their office used its budget, including confidential funds.
Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio earlier said that her office never misused its budget amid Commission on Audit (COA) records showing the OVP spent P125 million of its confidential funds in 11 days in 2022.
Instead, the Vice President said the inquiry was “unnecessary” and not in aid of legislation and also a mere test case for filing an impeachment case against her./PN
