MANILA, Philippines — The Senate Blue Ribbon committee postponed to a still undetermined date its investigation into the allegedly irregular importation of 440,000 metric tons of sugar into the country ahead of the implementation of a sugar order allowing this.
The Blue Ribbon panel said Monday in a notice that the initial hearing is being postponed "in view of the foreign official trips and therefore the non-availability of several important resource persons."
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The office of Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who filed a resolution seeking a Senate probe into what she called a “government-sponsored smuggling” of sugar, said she was ready to attend the hearing remotely through videoconferencing.
Last week, members of the Senate public order panel including Hontiveros and Blue Ribbon chairperson Sen. Francis Tolentino, unanimously decided to bar suspended Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. from virtually attending the hearing into the killings in his province of Negros Oriental.
They said the Senate panel will not be able to acquire jurisdiction over Teves should it issue subpoenas or hold him in contempt as his whereabouts are unknown. Senators said Teves must either appear in person or remotely at a Philippine embassy, consulate or chancery.
This was adopted from Commission on Appointments rules and Supreme Court circulars on remote appearances, which Tolentino said had a "persuasive effect" over the Senate proceedings.
As this has set precedent in the Senate, the rule would likely be carried over in other Senate panels if not yet codified in the chamber’s rules.
Hontiveros is seeking an investigation into the importation of sugar into the country ahead of the effectivity of Sugar Order No. 6.
Department of Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban previously admitted that his actions were aboveboard as he considered Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin's January 13 memorandum to be a "sugar order" to proceed with the importation.
"I acted with haste and interpreted the memorandum issued by the Office of the Executive Secretary as an approval to proceed with the importation," Panganiban said in February.
Hontiveros has called on Panganiban to be preventively-suspended from his post pending an investigation into what she called the "Sugar Fiasco 2.0," but instead Malacañang appointed him as officer-in-charge of the Sugar Regulatory Administration.