The House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture and Food on Tuesday ordered the release of two cold storage company officials being investigated in connection with the drastic increase in onion prices last year.
The two were cited in contempt by the panel and ordered detained until they submit documents subpoenaed by the panel.
Quezon Rep. Mark Enverga, committee chairman, said Micahel Ang and George Ong were released following the lifting of the contempt citation against them.
“The [House] Committee on Agriculture and Food, having received required documents and assured of willingness to cooperate in the succeeding hearings, unanimously acted on the lifting of contempt order of Mr. Michael King Ang and Mr. George Ong,” Enverga said in a statement.
Enverga’s panel ordered the detention of Ang and Ong, of the cold storage company Super 5, for submitting insufficient documents involving company operations.
Rules of the House of Representatives provide that those cited in contempt can be detained at the premises of the chamber for a maximum of 10 days.
Lawmakers took offense of Ang’s and Ong’s failure to include a complete list of their clients and the amount of their earnings in the documents they submitted.
Quezon Rep. Jay-jay Suarez, a panel member, said that other cold storage facilities were able to submit the documents that the committee asked from them, meaning there was no reason Super 5 could not do the same.
The release of the Super 5 officials marked the second time that the House agriculture and food panel had lifted a contempt order on the executives of a cold storage facility.
Enverga’s panel also earlier cited officials of Nueva Ecija-based Argo International Forwarders Inc. for contempt after president and general manager Efren Zoleta Jr., operations manager John Patrick Sevilla, and legal counsel Jan Ryan Cruz also failed to disclose their clients to the lawmakers.
The Argo officials, however, were later released on March 14 after they submitted the documents asked by lawmakers and assured them that they have no intention of disregarding the congressional probe or delaying such a process.