House urged to conduct probe on slapping incident involving a lawmaker over pork

An exhaustive investigation in the House of Representatives is necessary to determine who among the caterers were responsible for the inclusion of pork in the dish served to a Muslim lawmaker, a senior House official said yesterday.

"We are going to conduct a congressional inquiry. Shangri-La and Saisaki should enlighten us about this very serious matter. We will not let this thing pass without somebody getting punished," Rep. Benasing Macarambon said.

Circumstances behind the Nov. 21 incident where Lanao del Sur Rep. Faysah Dumarpa slapped Shangri-La’s dining manager Virgina Altamirano, who had unintentionally served her pancit (noodles) with pork, should also include the caterers, especially since Shangri-La pointed to Saisaki as the food source.

Macarambon defended his colleague Dumarpa, saying there was "bad faith and deception" on the part of Altamirano, whom they asked if the pancit contained pork. Muslims are prohibited to eat pork under Islamic laws.

"If it were me, I don’t know what will be my state of mind. You know, Muslims can kill," he warned.

The administration lawmaker likewise supported the suggestion of Rep. Mujiv Hataman, a fellow Muslim representing the party-list group Anak Mindanao, to label foods at the congressmen’s lounge to distinguish which ones are Halal (certified pork-free).

"Aside from labeling, the leadership should also order the catering service to put all the ingredients and other details of the food being served to us," the former commander of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) said.

But he was not keen on Hataman’s proposal for a separate lounge for Muslims.

Shangri-La’s Finest Chinese Cuisine had thumbed down the request of Dumarpa to fire dining manager Altamirano, who, despite her apology, had been the subject of physical and verbal attack by the Muslim lawmaker.

"You (Dumarpa) will no doubt agree with us that physical violence and even the threats of the same have no place in our civilized society, most especially in the hallowed premises of Congress," president Ramon Syhunliong wrote Dumarpa.

"It is for this reason, among others, that we are constrained to express our own condemnation of and outrage at the otherwise unjust and unjustifiable attack on the person of our own Virginia Altamirano," he added.

Syhunliong, however, added that the company has only but the highest respect for the religious and cultural convictions of Muslims in general and Dumarpa in particular.

Because of this, Syhunliong informed House secretary general Roberto Nazareno that they will be pulling out their concessionaire agreement with the House at the soonest possible time, if only to protect their employee, who remains under threat until now.