MANILA, Philippines — Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez showed up at the Senate less than an hour after the Blue Ribbon Committee voted to subpoena him after two straight absences at its probe into the sugar importation fiasco.
"I would like to sincerely apologize if we have to resort to the issuance of a subpoena to compel my presence today. I have no intention whatsoever to disrespect the honorable members of the Senate and the Senate as an institution. And that’s why I learned when a subpoena was issued, I don’t want to, but I have to inform His Excellency [President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.] even if he is on his state visit," Rodriguez told the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.
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This came after Rodriguez first said that he would not be attending the hearings moving forward after the chief executive ordered him to snub the Senate investigation.
"I regret to inform the Senate that per instructions of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., I will not be able to attend the hearings of the above mentioned committees," Rodriguez wrote in a letter addressed to Sen. Francis Tolentino which the latter read out at the hearing.
Subpoena issued
Hontiveros held issue with this response to the two invitations in a row and moved for the committee to subpoena the "little president."
"Why do we have a resource person who is in effect dictating to the Blue Ribbon how he will respond? This is concerning; on what basis is the president, the highest official in the bureacracy, instructing him not to attend the hearing of a Senate committee, the Blue Ribbon Committee at that?" she said in mixed Filipino and English.
"It's not right for the ES, who leads the bureacracy in service of the president, the government, and the people, to be safe and sitting pretty while honest civil servants and career employees are made the fall guys. We cannot let the head of the bureaucracy get away scot-free and throw under the bus those who have persistently, quietly worked for our country. They deserve better."
Tolentino, who chairs the committee, then moved for an executive session to discuss the motion, but Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel questioned the need for an executive session just to issue a subpoena to the executive secretary.
"We're being too occupied with such a simple issue. The extra hassle the ES is giving us is not worth it. You could have joined us online wherever you are in the world...we're telling the ES, do not change the rules, just appear before the Blue Ribbon Committee," Pimentel said in mixed Filipino and English.
"You can outvote us publicly, we don't need to do it in an executive session because the people might doubt us...A strong Blue Ribbon Committee is a strong Senate."
Resource persons and members of the media were asked to leave the hall for the executive session. Of the 14 members of the Blue Ribbon Committee who participated in the secret ballotting, 11 voted to subpoena Rodriguez, while 3 voted no. Three others abstained.
Rodriguez only attended the first hearing of the committee's probe into the sugar fiasco, where he admitted he never responded to former Agriculture Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian, who eventually signed Sugar Order No. 4 for President Marcos.
In the second hearing, Tolentino said he was told that Rodriguez was attending a Cabinet meeting and could not attend the Senate inquiry. — with a report from Xave Gregorio