SPEAKER Pantaleon Alvarez has signed a subpoena to compel Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos to attend the July 25, 2017 resumption of a congressional probe into the alleged misappropriation of P66.45 million in public funds, an official said Thursday.
Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel, head of the House committee on good government and public accountability, said the subpoena ad testificandum to Marcos dated June 25 had been signed.
Pimentel said Marcos’ failure to attend the probe would be enough ground for her to be cited in contempt and to be arrested.
He said his committee will serve the subpoena.
“Failure to comply with this order is subject to penalty under the law,” the subpoena says.
Marcos earlier maintained she would not attend the congressional probe on the advise of her brother, former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as she might also be detained at the Batasan Complex with the “Ilocos Six.”
The six officials are accused of evading questions on the P66.45-million fund, Ilocos Norte’s share of the excise tax on tobacco products.
Pimentel earlier stood pat on the position of the House leadership to ignore Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno’s request not to push through with its “show-cause order” against three Court of Appeals justices who ordered his committee to release the six officials.
Alvarez had called the three officials “idiots.”