Subpoena Cabinet members, Dela Rosa urges Senate panel

Sen. Ronald ‘Bato’ Dela Rosa. (Voltaire F. Domingo/Senate PRIB)

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate panel probing the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte should issue a subpoena against all Cabinet members who snubbed its hearing on Thursday, according to Sen. Ronald dela Rosa.

“What we have right now in front of us are empty chairs. What the officials from the executive branch of government did is a total snub (of the hearing) as far as we are concerned,” the senator said during the second hearing of the Senate committee on foreign relations, chaired by Sen. Imee Marcos.

The snub “is a clear disregard for the doctrine of checks and balances of our government, If they don’t want to attend a hearing, it means they don’t want to be checked by an equal branch of government,” Dela Rosa said in a mix of English and Filipino.

READ: Cabinet members snub Senate hearing on Duterte’s arrest

The senator said he “would like to move that we issue a subpoena to these government officials to require their presence in the next hearing.”

Asked if he would refer this to the upper chamber’s legal department, Senate President Francis Escudero said: “Yes.”

The government officials invited to the probe have opted not to attend the hearing, citing executive privilege and the sub judice rule.

Only three resource persons attended the public inquiry: Securities and Exchange Commission chief counsel RJ Bernal, SEC supervising securities review counsel Ferdino Logie Santiago, and lawyer Alexis Medina.

In an ambush interview after the hearing, Marcos showed several subpoena documents for various police and government officials now up for Escudero’s signature.

“If the cry of the people for former president Duterte is to bring him home, my cry to the executive branch is to bring the officials here to the Senate so we can have witnesses here. There are so many questions,” she said in a mix of Filipino and English.

Marcos said she has with her a number of subpoenas since not all officials are covered by executive privilege and sub judice. She said among those with subpoenas are Philippine National Police chief Gen. Rommel Marbil, Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo, Maj. Gen. Nicolas Torre, Special Envoy on Transnational Crime Markus Lacanilao and the secretaries of various government agencies.

“Many of them did not attend the hearing so we cannot proceed,” she said.

Marcos’ office earlier disclosed that officials of the National Security Council, Philippine Center on Transnational Crimes, and Department of the Interior and Local Government confirmed their attendance at the hearing on Wednesday.

However, the officials later withdrew their confirmation after Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin categorically stated that the Palace had thumbed down the Senate panel’s request for the Cabinet members’ attendance.