00:00Four officials from the office of the Vice President have been ordered to be taken into custody for the deliberate intent
00:05in a repeated and concerted effort to ditch the invites and skip the hearings.
00:10Armando Las Muertas has more on the latest move by the House Committee on Good Governance and Public Accountability
00:16to deal with the apparent shenanigans of OVP officials to evade the hearings
00:21and the uninvited OVP official who showed up today but was eventually shown the door.
00:28The House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability has ordered the arrest of four officials from the office of the Vice President
00:38due to their repeated failure to attend the panel hearing on the alleged phone misuse issue at the OVP.
00:44Among those cited in contempt are OVP Assistant Chief of Staff and Bids and Awards Committee Chair Limuel Ortono,
00:51Special Disbursing Officer Gina Acosta, and former Dept. and Official Sunshine Fajarda and Edward Fajarda,
00:58who both have transferred to the OVP.
01:00To explain, they all submitted letters and travel orders but the lawmakers did not buy it.
01:06It's a bit surprising because they both left.
01:11They both have travel orders.
01:13They both were forced to leave on the day of the hearings.
01:19Now, it makes me think that there's actually a malicious intent behind all these reasons and travel orders given to them
01:31just so that they can again avoid attending today's hearing, Mr. Chair.
01:37Vice President Sara Duterte's Chief of Staff, Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez, was also unable to attend.
01:43However, due to valid reasons, she was granted another opportunity to appear in the next hearing.
01:49While five officials were absent, four OVP officials attended the hearing,
01:54namely Chief Accountant Julieta Villa del Rey, Administrative and Financial Services Director Rosalyn Sanchez,
02:00Budget Division Chief Edeline Rabago, and Chief Administrative Officer Kelvin Tenido.
02:06Another OVP official, Attorney Emily Torrentira, unexpectedly showed up, although she was not invited.
02:12She also refused to take the honesty oath, so she was eventually asked to leave.
02:17Number one, she was not invited to attend today's hearing.
02:22Number two, she did not take her oath.
02:30So we don't even know the personalities and the circumstances to why she is here.
02:36And no communication was forwarded to the committee as to her attendance.
02:42For all we know, she can be somebody posing for somebody,
02:47and the committee cannot act on mere presentation without proper representation.
02:54During the discussion, several congressmen once again raised questions about the OVP's usage of confidential funds in 2022.
03:02But the OVP officials in attendance claimed not to have extensive and in-depth information on the matter.
03:08Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the House Squad Committee will continue its separate investigation
03:12into the previous administration's war on illegal drugs,
03:16and the House Solons are keeping their fingers crossed former President Rodrigo Duterte will appear.
03:22Personally, his statements in our Senate hearing left us with more questions than answers.
03:28So we're really hoping that he would attend.
03:30Melales Moras from the National TV Network for a new and better Philippines.
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