The House joint committees on public accounts, and suffrage and electoral reforms have ordered the detention for contempt of Cagayan provincial administrator lawyer Maria Rosario Mamba Villaflor in connection with the alleged misuse of public funds during the 2022 elections. At the same time, the joint committee gave Cagayan Gov. Manuel Mamba until August 10 to explain why he should not be likewise cited in contempt for failure to attend the congressional inquiry despite several invitations sent to him
The joint panel, chaired by ABANG LINGKOD party-list Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano and Mountain Province Rep. Maximo Dalog Jr, respectively, has been conducting hearings on the alleged “open and massive distribution of cash and other forms of assistance to registered voters and barangays in Cagayan during the prohibited period from March 25, 2022 to May 9, 2022.
Congress has the power to cite in contempt resource persons invited in committee meetings if they are deemed uncooperative or evasive during congressional inquiries. Contempt of the Congress may be penalized by indefinite detention at the premises of the House of Representatives.
During the hearing, legislators led by Paduano were disappointed with Villaflor for preventing 10 Cagayan provincial officials to attend the joint inquiry last Monday to shed light on the issue.
The concerned Cagayan provincial officers were Vita Vergara, Catalino Arugay, Maritel Bautista, Kristine Reyes, Ma. Anita Obispo, Amelia Manalo, Rosario Mandac, Heracleo Dumapal, Roselle Buncad, Daisy Baguisi, and lawyer Rogelio Taliping.
The committee also declined Villaflor’s excuse that she did not allow the 10 Cagayan provincial officials to attend the congressional hearings, citing “prior scheduled activities, includingthe distribution of financial and relief assistance for Typhoon Egayvictims, as well as the finalization of their post-disaster assessment.”
But it was later found in the hearing that the 10 officials would have wanted to testify as resource persons at the House only if Villaflor signed their travel papers and other documents allowing them to come to Congress.
The officials admitted that the aid distribution could continue even without them, and that not all are involved in relief operations.
This prompted the committees of Paduano and Dalog to order Villaflor to be detained at the House facility for 10 days for her interference with the joint inquiry.
“A show cause order was already served to Gov. Mamba,” Paduano said.
Paduano earlier appealed to Mamba to heed their request to attend the congressional inquiry to shed light on the controversy.
Paduano earlier said Mamba’s refusal to attend the hearing was an “insult to Congress.”
The joint committee has been conducting investigation into the issue involving Mamba in response to House Resolution 146 filed by Cagayan Rep. Joseph Lara calling for an inquiry on the “inaction of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on the Cagayan provincial capitol’s alleged cash distribution during last year’s election season.”
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 some P550 million to P600 million and proceeded to massively distribute the fund province-wide to registered voters and residents of Cagayan.
Lara also stated that P1,000 each were 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 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,” said Lara in his HR 146.
Last year’s national elections was held on May 9, 2022.