Weaponized contempt charges
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
ALLOW me to highlight here how the Quad committee formed by House Speaker Martin Romualdez acted as investigator, prosecutor and judge to all its invited resource persons whom they have identified as “persons of interests” initially in hearings on the illegal activities of POGO operators.
Take the case of Atty. Harry Roque.
Atty. Harry was cited for contempt and detained overnight at the Batasan Bldg. two weeks ago. His crime? He failed to attend a scheduled hearing. He admitted having committed a faux pax and he apologized outright.
The QuadCom rejected his apology and decided he deserved to be charged with contempt for being “disrespectful” towards the committee. They refused to accept his appeal for some consideration since he had nothing to gain from his absence. He reminded them that he had been religiously attending all hearings in the senate and in separate committees before the QuadCom was formed, and therefore, had nothing to gain by being absent once.
He was ignored and ordered detained.
Then, QuadCom denied motion of Atty Harry Roque to quash its requirement to submit his and his family’s financial records and, the required documents (including his SALN when he was still the presidential spokesman), since submitting these not only violate his and his family’s privacy but are already irrelevant to hearings on illegal POGO activities.
(Note: When Cassandra Li Ong, officer of both Whirlwind Corporation and Lucky South 99 was asked to confirm if Atty. Harry is the legal counsel of Lucky South 99, she declared without hesitation that Atty. Harry was not and was never the legal counsel of Lucky South 99, contrary to information by an anonymous source submitted to both hearings in the Senate and Congress).
But QuadCom argued that Atty. Harry had agreed to comply earlier. But of course, he agreed initially because he wanted to show that he was willing to cooperate, until he realized what the QuadCom was up to: witch hunting.
The QuadCom decided it would have nothing to do with protecting Atty Harry’s and his family’s privacy rights since their ruling adheres to House rules, (not the rule of law?).
So, it promptly cited Atty Harry again for contempt for refusing to submit the documents and ordered to be detained indefinitely until the committee orders otherwise.
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NO MERCY FOR ORDINARY CITIZENS. The QuadCom earlier cited Sheila, the sister of Alice Guo, and Cassandra Li Ong for contempt and ordered them detained for days until the hearings are concluded. Their crime? They were providing answers that did not sit well with the QuadCom.
Not even their lawyers could defend them from being charged with contempt! (If the resource persons were on trial before a court, charging them for contempt for their responses would have been thrown out the window).
At the rate the House rules of Congress are being applied for political reasons, ordinary individuals like Sheila and Cassandra will never be able to protect themselves when asked to appear in these hearings.
It’s just as well that Atty. Harry does not attend further hearings. He should not be silenced amid efforts to demonize him and other resource persons whimsically.
The QuadCom of Speaker Romualdez has since made it known – that it will not stop at anything until Duterte’s shadow and influence are obliterated until 2028.
Only in the Philippines. Such is the blatant abuse of power and authority by congressmen to persecute their Big Boss’ political enemies.
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GRIN AND BEAR THE CURSE UNTIL 2025. The 7 epaLiFes are simply incorrigible.
They not only refuse to support the establishment of DOH’s Mother-Child hospital but continue to plagiarize the work of their counterparts in the minority, and claim credit for it. (I find it amusing that Councilor Michael Fernandez chose to use the word ‘hijack’ instead of “plagiarize” this time
Many wonder what values were taught them by their parents but that question is most unfair because their parents of old lived on traditional moral values that were the norm those days while the arrogant councilors were raised playing with expensive toys.
I can only surmise that their level of corrupt mindset could have only been cultivated by their daily exposure to each other who began to think early on that they were invincible, indomitable and venerable simply because the INC backed them all the way. And, they still believe the INC continues to back them fully as they block environmental, health and livelihood programs of the current city administration!
Admittedly, the failure of the Belen administration to fight back by filing the appropriate criminal and administrative cases against the 7 councilors did not help make the 7epaLiFes see the light- to do what is right for the city.
Well, I guess Dagupeños will just have to grin and bear the curse that came with the 7 epaLiFes’ election in 2022, until after the 2025 elections. By this, I mean, Dagupeños who belong to the INC will not vote for the 7 political obstructionists lest they want to continue to suffer for another 3 years together with the rest of their kabaleyans.
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KILLING DAGUPAN SLOWLY. I asked some Dagupeños about what they thought of the thousands of illegal fish pens that have been operating since 2022 (under Brian Lim administration). Most were nonchalant and unaffected about it until I told them:
- More than 70% of the owners are not residents of Dagupan City, some are not even residing in Pangasinan at all.
- Being illegal operations, the owners are not paying the city government a single centavo for its millions in profits every year.
- The illegal fish pen operations have made the riverbed of Pantal River and other tributaries very shallow with the daily dumping of thousands of sacks of commercial feeds.
- The shallow riverbed causes worsening flooding in the city streets and low-lying barangays after a regular high tide occurrence or after days of torrential rains. The worse is yet to happen once both natural occurrences happen at the same time.
- Who pays for the severe damages caused by flooding? Only the legit taxpayers while the illegal fish pen operators celebrate with their illegal profits every month at Dagupeños expense.
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