<\/p>\n
OFFICE of the Vice President (OVP) Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez on Wednesday was cited in contempt by the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability over her alleged “undue interference” amid the ongoing investigation into the use of confidential funds by the OVP.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro moved to cite Lopez for contempt, citing the letter sent by the OVP to the Commission on Audit (COA), requesting the commission to disregard a congressional subpoena for audit reports on the office’s confidential expenses in 2022 and 2023.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to the OVP letter dated August 21, the subpoena should not be complied with, citing reasons such as a potential violation of the constitutional principle of separation of powers.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cDito sa letter na ito, Mr. Chair, may plano talaga ang OVP na mag-interfere doon sa conduct ng ating proceedings,\u201d Castro said.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The ACT Partylist representative said Lopez signed the letter, violating House rules on undue interference in the conduct of proceedings.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMay I move na nag-violate si Atty. Lopez dito sa ating proceedings or dito sa ating trabaho,” Castro said.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n House committee chair and Manila Rep. Joel Chua approved Castro’s motion after it was duly seconded.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Meanwhile, Lopez explained that the letter was not intended to undermine Congress.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe premise is that hindi pa po final \u2018yung findings ng audit investigation, so we feel that it was not the right time to release it. It was inconclusive,\u201d Lopez told the panel.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lopez appealed for the contempt order to be lifted, maintaining that it was just a “respectful request” to the COA.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n “There was no intention, your honor, to demand from them, or to order them, or to commandeer them into something that they did not want to do. It was really something that we requested of the Commission on Audit. And at the end of the day, it is still the Commission on Audit who will decide best,” Lopez said.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n “I would like to request to the members of the honorable committee to lift that contempt order, or to reconsider and grant my request not to cite me in contempt,” she added.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Despite Lopez\u2019s appeal, Castro stood firm on her motion, citing evasive answers and the overall conduct of the OVP undersecretary during the hearing.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Castro proposed that Lopez be detained for five days or until the committee\u2019s next hearing on Nov. 25.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The House committee is conducting an investigation into the alleged misuse of P612.5 million in confidential and intelligence funds allocated to the OVP and the Department of Education DepEd) under VP Sara’s leadership.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 4 OVP OFFICIALS FACE CRIMINAL, \u00a0ADMINISTRATVE RAPS<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Meanwhile, four officials of the OVP will face criminal and administrative charges if they would continue defying invitations and subpoenas issued by the committee of the House of Representatives, lawmakers warned Wednesday.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Manila Rep. Joel Chua, chairman of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, said they would not hesitate to file criminal charges against the four.<\/strong> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The panel earlier cited Lemeul Ortonio, Gina Acosta, Sunshine Fajarda, and Eduard Fajarda in\u00a0contempt for repeated failure to attend the inquiry on the budget use of the OVP and the DepEd during the stint of Duterte<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" OFFICE of the Vice President (OVP) Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez on Wednesday was cited in contempt by the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10140"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10142,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10140\/revisions\/10142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}