A joint committee in the House of Representatives on Monday issued a show cause order on two former Cagayan provincial government officials and a radio station executives for failure to attend congressional hearings on alleged massive distribution of cash and other forms of assistance in Cagayan province during the 2022 election campaign period.
The House Committee on Public Accounts and Suffrage and the Committee on Electoral Reforms issued the order directing the respondents to explain why they should not be cited for contempt over their continuing absence from the House probe.
Ordered to explain why they should not be cited in contempt were a former Cagayan provincial administrator and a former Cagayan provincial health officer, as well as executives of Bombo Radyo Tuguegarao.
Rep. Stephen Paduano of Abang Lingkod party-list group, chair of the House committee on public accounts, stressed that the former provincial officials should cooperate with the committee investigation.
“This is already the seventh hearing. It is only proper for Bombo Radyo and these other individuals to be issued a show cause order for explanation why they should not be cited in contempt by this committee. This is supposedly the last hearing,” Paduano said.
Cagayan provincial police Director Col. Julio Gorospe lamented that service of the subpoenas to the erstwhile provincial officials had failed because they were not in their residences during the delivery date of the summons.
“This is so puzzling because you were given ample time for this,” Cagayan Rep. Joseph Lara said in response to Gorospe’s alibi.
“I once saw the former official in front of his house. Isn’t this embarrassing for the police?” he asked.
“These are known personalities. The committee should address this because this probe will only drag on because of the absence of these resource persons,” Lara added.
Paduano warned Gorospe that the committees would cite him and other Cagayan police officers in contempt over their continued failure to serve the subpoena.
“If ever you did not exert best effort, we can cite you in contempt for undue interference because this is now the seventh hearing. They are not common criminals. Can you commit now at least that they will receive it [next time]? Or else, I will call for a separate investigation, and even the PNP, to investigate what you have done,” Paduano warned.
“This has been going on for so many months. I will direct the chief of police to be present in my committee. Tingnan natin sino ang mapahiya (Let’s see who will be embarrassed). Do not force me, and my committee! I will not hesitate to move to citeyou in contempt,” Paduano added.
“We will continue to look for the said persons, Sir. We will exert our best effort in locating them, Sir,” Gorospe vowed.
The joint committee conducts the hearings on the subject in response to House Resolution 146 filed by Lara.
In his resolution, Lara claimed that “more or less 10 days before the election, apparently as part of his grand scheme and design, Governor Mamba ordered the withdrawal, release, and disbursement of…more or less P550 million to P600 million and proceeded to massively distribute the funds province-wide to registered voters and residents of Cagayan.”
Lara also stated that P1,000 each were purportedly distributed to the registered voters “in the guise of ‘ayuda to voters’ under his Krusada Kontra Korapsyon” program.
“This massive scale of illegal use and disbursement of public funds which began at the onset of the campaign period, were orchestrated to undermine the results of the election and to solicit votes for the incumbent governor who is running for his third term as Governor and thus, clearly constituted as massive vote buying using public funds of the provincial government of Cagayan,” HR 146 read.