The joint House committees on public accounts and suffrage, and electoral reforms adopted a motion to detain Cagayan Governor Manuel Mamba for his failure to attend congressional hearings in connection with the alleged misuse of public funds in Cagayan during the 2022 elections.
At a hearing Thursday, Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop made the motion to detain Mamba to cooperate with congressmen on their investigations on the “inaction of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on the Cagayan provincial capitol’s alleged cash distribution during last year’s election season.”
“Mr. Chair, may we respectfully move that Governor Mamba be detained pursuant to our rules and be meted out the penalty that is supposed to be meted out pursuant to our rules?” Acop asked the joint panel.
Prior to his motion to detain Mamba, Acop, a lawyer, asked the joint committee to cite Mamba in contempt.
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.
“Since the governor of Cagayan was not able to obey the processes of these two committees, in the spirit of the equitable provisions of the law, I move that we cite the governor of Cagayan for contempt,” Acop said.
But Deputy Majority Leader Zamboanga Sibugay Rep. Wilter Palma said
Mamba should be given another chance to show up.
“Can I ask a favor? For the last time, we’ll ask again, for him to appear. If he will not appear at the next hearing, then, I will be the co-sponsor of that motion,” he said.
“We will give him the last chance, if that would be possible, Mr. Chair? To have fairness, and for him to appear before this committee,” Palma appealed to his fellow legislators. But his appeal was turned down. Maricel V. Cruz
Abang Lingkod Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano, chair of committee on public accounts, said Mamba had been given chance to be heard at the several hearings called by the joint committee since it started on May 31 but he seemed to have not cooperate.
Quezon City Rep. Marvin Rillo, member of committee on suffrage and electoral reforms, shared Paduano’s view. “Giving him three months is more than enough,” Rillo said.
The joint committee conducts the hearings on the subject in response to House Resolution 146 filed by Cagayan Rep. Joseph 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 massivelydistribute 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.