Pampanga town mayor faces arrest for skipping House hearings

MANILA, Philippines — The mayor of Mexico town in Pampanga will be arrested if he will continue to skip the hearings of the House committee on accounts, which is looking into alleged irregularities of the municipal government under his term.

An arrest warrant for Mayor Teddy Tumang may be issued, panel chairman Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano of Abang Lingkod party-list and Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel said.

“We need Mayor Tumang to be physically present here. As I’ve said, he’s not around. He waived his right,” Paduano said.

The House panel is conducting an inquiry in aid of legislation into the Commission on Audit (COA) report on alleged anomalous transactions of the municipal government from 2007 to 2010 amounting to P149 million.

Pimentel expressed frustration over Tumang’s absence, saying the other resource persons could not answer his questions.

“The subject matter of this audit report, which is about two inches thick, is Mayor Tumang himself. He signed the P149 million supposedly anomalous transactions by himself,” he said.

“Congress has also the power to issue contempt... by a vote of two-thirds of the members present,” Pimentel pointed out.

Refusal to obey summons is one of the grounds for citing a resource person in contempt.

Failure to appear before the panel despite being cited in contempt would lead to the issuance of a warrant of arrest.

The panel is also looking into a loan agreement of the local government unit  (LGU) with the Development Bank of the Philippines worth P950 million.

The COA had initiated a special audit leading to a Fraud Audit Investigation Office Report, which revealed a series of irregular projects and expenditures of the LGU.