THE chairperson of the House Committee on Good Government yesterday warned the seven officials of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) who were subpoenaed by the panel last week that they will be cited in contempt and ordered arrested if they will not attend today’s hearing.
“The committee has summoned these officials multiple times, yet they continue to disregard our lawful requests to appear,” Manila Rep. Joel Chua said in a statement. “These absences reflect a blatant disregard for the authority of Congress and are unacceptable. If they fail to appear again, we are prepared to issue orders for their arrest.”
The OVP has already confirmed that Vice President Sara Duterte approved the overseas travel of her chief of staff Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez, who left for Los Angeles, California on Monday night last week, the eve of the scheduled hearing of the Chua panel which is looking into the Vice President’s alleged misuse of confidential funds, worth a total of P612.5 million in both the OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd).
The OVP said Lopez will be on leave until November 16. It said the Vice President’s chief of staff’s travel “was personal and unrelated to her employment with the OVP.”
The six other officials who were subpoenaed by the committee are assistant chief of staff and Bids and Awards Committee chair Lemuel Ortonio, Administrative and Financial Services Director Rosalynne Sanchez, Special Disbursing Officer (SDO) Gina Acosta, and chief accountant Julieta Villadelrey.
Former DepEd Assistant Secretary Sunshine Charry Fajarda and DepEd SDO Edward Fajarda, who are both reportedly now with the OVP, were also issued subpoenas. The Fajarda couple were close aides of the Vice President during her tenure as DepEd secretary from July 2022 until she resigned in July 2024. They reportedly transferred to the OVP after Duterte’s resignation as education secretary in July.
So far, only Sanchez and Villadelrey have confirmed their attendance in today’s hearing, according to Chua, who said that his committee “has been more than fair in giving these officials ample opportunities to cooperate.”
“If they fail to appear this time, they leave us no choice but to impose heavier penalties, including contempt and potential arrest and detention,” he said.
The committee is seeking the explanations of the seven OVP officers on the alleged misuse of P500 million in confidential funds of the OVP and P125 million from DepEd when Duterte was education secretary.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has flagged almost half of the total and disallowed P73 million of the P125 million spent by the Vice President’s office in just 11 days during the last quarter of 2022.
