Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel | The Source - video Dailymotion

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Lawmakers cite two SMNI hosts in contempt for their behavior during a House hearing.  Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel tells us more in the show.   Visit our website for more #NewsYouCanTrust: https://www.cnnphilippines.com/  Follow our social media pages:  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CNNPhilippines • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cnnphilippines/ • Twitter: https://twitter.com/cnnphilippines

Transcript

00:00 You're watching the source on CNN Philippines. I'm Pinky Webb. The House of Representatives

00:06 cited SMNI anchors Jeffrey Seles and Lorraine Badoy in contempt. During a hearing on Tuesday,

00:12 Seles refused to name the source of his report that Speaker Martin Romualdo spent 1.8 billion

00:18 pesos for his foreign trips, which he later admitted was false. Congressman Benny Abate,

00:23 meanwhile, said Badoy was found lying about her employment status in the network. Seles

00:27 and Badoy will be detained until the Legislative Franchises Committee report is adopted at

00:32 the plenary. Let's go straight to the source of the story we have. The lawmaker who moved

00:37 to cite Seles in contempt, he's Sir Rigao del Sur's Second District Representative,

00:42 Johnny Pimentel. Congressman, good to see you again. Welcome to the show.

00:47 Good morning, Pinky. Good morning to your teleview.

00:49 So I was watching it, sir. No, um,

00:52 maybe it's not a good time to watch, but I want to bring up some of the points that

00:59 Jeffrey Seles was saying. So during the previous hearing, sir, um, what was being said was

01:06 that he had no counsel. But this time around, yesterday, he had a counsel. Okay. So basically,

01:15 he was saying that some of what was said in the past, he was appealing, is that right?

01:20 To be, them to be stricken off the record because he was not represented by a lawyer.

01:25 Is that correct, sir? Yes. He was requesting that some of his statements

01:33 during the November 30 hearing be stricken off the record. Because during the November

01:39 30 hearing, when I asked him, he admitted that his source was wrong because he accused

01:48 the speaker of spending 1.8 billion pesos in the traveling expenses. But upon the testimony

01:55 of Secretary General Red Yubelasco and Bobby Maling, the financial department head, it

02:01 was found out that Speaker Martin Romales only spent 4.3 million pesos for 2023 traveling

02:10 expenses and the whole of Congress, 35 million pesos. So I even asked him if he's willing

02:20 to recount his testimony and apologize to Congress. And he said he was willing to do

02:27 that. But after a few hours, he went on and attacked the Congress. The point is, he admitted

02:37 during the last hearing that he wants it to be stricken off the record.

02:42 That's what he wanted. That's what he wants to be stricken off the record. Because during

02:46 the November 30, I think what you asked exactly, sir, would you be willing to apologize and

02:55 basically say that your source was wrong. His answer here was, my answer is in the affirmative.

03:01 Isn't that what he was answering? He didn't say, yes, I'm apologizing.

03:07 I even asked him, Eric, so you admit that you were wrong in your information. And then he

03:14 said, yes, my source was wrong. So right then and there, I asked him if he was willing to

03:23 recount his testimony. He said yes. So that's what I believe. Since he didn't have a counsel

03:30 at that time, he was not allowed to have a counsel at that time, because when we asked

03:35 Atty. Tolentino, when we asked Atty. Suplico whether they are representing Mr. Ceres, they

03:45 said they are representing only SME. So yesterday, he requested that he will be allowed to hire

03:56 on this spot, Atty. Suplico and Atty. Tolentino to be his legal counsel. So yesterday, he

04:03 was allowed to have a legal counsel in the person of Suplico and Tolentino.

04:11 But sir, is there any merit to what he wanted to be stricken off the record because he was

04:20 not legally represented? Is there any merit to that?

04:27 No, he cannot do that because it is only the members of that committee who can move for

04:32 the deletion of some pertinent statements in the proceedings. He's not a member of that

04:41 committee. He's not even a member of the House of Representatives. So how can he move for

04:48 stricken out several statements in the proceedings?

04:53 So, the resource persons have no right to appeal to delete certain statements made because

05:03 they were not represented by a counsel. There's no such thing?

05:07 Yes. What he can do is approach a congressman or request a congressman or a member of that

05:14 committee for him to move for the deletion of some portions of the minutes. But if it's

05:21 only him, he cannot do that.

05:24 Yes. He cannot.

05:25 In fact, in the course of the hearing yesterday, Atty. Tolentino questioned the quorum of the

05:35 members present. And I told him outright that you have no right to question the quorum of

05:42 this committee because you are not a member of this committee. You are not even a member

05:47 of the House of Representatives. It is only the members of that committee who can question

05:51 the quorum.

05:52 Yes. At least that I'm sure of, sir. Okay. So, he's detained. And throughout that hearing

05:59 yesterday, you wanted him detained indefinitely. And then another congressman said, "We cannot

06:07 do that because of the Supreme Court ruling that you cannot detain resource persons indefinitely."

06:12 Hence, you had a minute suspension, five-minute suspension. And the decision in the end was

06:19 to detain him. I'm still talking about Celis, sir, until the House adopts the resolution

06:28 of the franchise committee.

06:30 Yes. Because after that, there was a debate on how long we should detain Mr. Celis. Congressman

06:40 Ako proposed for a 30-day detention. But then we had a recess or the hearing was suspended

06:51 to make sure that we found out that there is a jurisprudence from the Senate. This is

06:57 ballot versus Senate that the contempt will take effect until the approval or the adoption

07:08 of the committee report in the plenary. So, he would be detained in the premises of Congress

07:15 until such time that we have the approval of the committee report in the plenary level.

07:21 Now, however, there could be a problem because until now there is no committee report and

07:27 the committee report must be voted upon by the majority of the members. So, if we have

07:33 a committee report and have it voted by next week, then send it to plenary to have it adopted.

07:42 But next week, we only have three days. So, if the committee report will not be approved

07:47 by next week, then they will have to spend, they will have to be detained until we resume

07:55 session, I believe, on January 22. And until such time that the committee report will be

08:01 adopted.

08:02 They answered my next question, sir, that if he and Lorraine Badoy will end up spending

08:07 Christmas at the House of Representatives, to which you said yes. I mean, the bigger

08:12 possibility is that they will spend Christmas there. Because the question here is...

08:19 There is a very, very big possibility that they will spend Christmas and New Year in

08:24 detention. However, they can make an appeal for a furlough for them to spend Christmas

08:32 holidays with their family. But that has to be approved by the committee and they have

08:37 to execute an appeal. If there is no appeal, then we cannot act on it.

08:43 If they execute an appeal for a furlough to spend Christmas and New Year with their families,

08:48 personally, is this something you would agree with or support or say yes to?

08:54 No, there is no appeal yet.

08:55 No, I know, sir.

08:56 But it does happen. In the case of Mayor Tumang and Mr. Roy Gomez, who is also detained right

09:03 now by a different committee, the Committee on Drugs, because again, the same offense

09:14 that they do not want to answer questions relevant to the inquiry. But they wrote an

09:22 appeal letter to the committee. First, Mayor Tumang is attending a wedding of his daughter

09:31 and the other one has a medical problem. So the committee will take it, deliberate on

09:37 that today. And I believe what I heard is that they will approve the furlough. But after

09:43 the resumption of the session, they will have to be detained back in the premises of Congress.

09:50 I just need to take a very short break. There's still lots to talk about. We'll be right back.

10:01 You're watching The Source on CNN Philippines. I'm Pinky Webb, our source today, Citigal

10:05 Del Sur Second District Representative Johnny Pimentel. Congressman, there's still a lot

10:10 to cover. Let's try to make this fast and I'll try that as well. Summary, why was Celis

10:17 detained?

10:18 We violated two provisions in our House Rules. Section 11 of the House Rules on the Conduct

10:26 of Inquiry in Aid of Legislation, paragraph C, if a resource person does not want to answer

10:38 a question relevant to inquiry, it's a ground for him to be cited for contempt. And Section

10:45 E, which is acting in a disrespectful manner or misbehaving during the committee hearing.

10:53 In this case, from the very start, Mr. Celis was already defiant. In fact, he was even

11:02 taunting the committee to cite him for contempt. And he was speaking over the microphone, even

11:13 if he was not recognized. And most of all, when we asked him four times to reveal his

11:23 source, he did not want to answer the question. And therefore, he has violated two provisions

11:30 of Section 11, the power to content a resource person by a majority vote of two-thirds.

11:37 Congressman, isn't this a violation of RA 114588 or the SOTOL law that basically allows

11:43 journalists to protect their sources?

11:47 Yes, Celis invoked that. However, this was already amended by Republic Act No. 1477.

12:01 And it's clearly stated in Section 1 of the Republic Act that those duly recognized or

12:12 accredited journalist, writer, reporter can avail of this SOTOL law. We found out that

12:21 Mr. Celis is not an accredited media practitioner by the KBP. So therefore, he cannot hide in

12:30 the skirt of this SOTOL law. And more than that, there is an exemption to this protection

12:39 of media practitioners in cases that the revelation is demanded by the security of the state.

12:48 And one of the matters that is being discussed was about the communist insurgency, was about

12:57 red tagging. So it involves the security of the state. So he cannot invoke the SOTOL law.

13:06 Could we delve into that a little more, sir? I know that one of the exceptions basically

13:11 is national security. Why would him, his not revealing, supposedly, sir, what he alleges

13:19 as his sources or source in the Senate, be related to national security when it comes

13:26 to the travels of the speaker? No, it was not only the travels of the speakers

13:33 that the speaker that we were already discussing. There were several things already that we

13:38 were discussing during the hearing. In fact, we also found out that the SMNI is making

13:46 several cases in different bodies. They have cases in KBP, they have cases in MTRCB, they

13:53 have cases in PRC, the Professional Regulation Commission, they have cases in MTRCB. And

14:03 some of these involve natures regarding security of the state. One case is large in NTC, where

14:15 it involves, where the allegations was that former Vice President Robredo had links with

14:26 the communists. So we know very well that communists fall under the national security.

14:34 So we have to know where they got their source, whether they have evidence pointing to Robredo

14:44 having links with communists. And it falls within section 1 of the so-called law.

14:50 And also, sorry sir, I need to move on. Lorraine Badoy was also cited in contempt this time

14:55 by Congressman Abante. Yes, she was cited in contempt because they were asking about

15:04 the income from advertisers. Accordingly, Lorraine Badoy told the committee that there

15:13 was no income, there were no advertisers for their program. However, in the financial statement

15:20 submitted to the committee secretariat, it was found out that through the years, they

15:25 have been receiving income. So Lorraine Badoy could not answer those questions. So he was

15:33 cited for contempt.

15:35 Okay. Lastly, sir, do you support this resolution filed by PBA party list representative Migs

15:43 Nugrales calling on the NTC to suspend the franchise of SMNI?

15:49 Yes, we voted on that yesterday. There was no objection. Actually, we did not put it

15:58 to a vote. It was moved by our congresswoman Migs Nugrales and the chairman asked if there

16:09 was any objection. There was none. So it was a unanimous vote. The resolution has been

16:16 adopted urging NTC to suspend the operations of SMNI.

16:22 And because it's adopted in the committee level, am I correct, sir, what happens next?

16:27 Yes, yes. Then it will have to, we will be voting on the committee report. It's now being

16:37 prepared with the committee secretariat and it will be brought up to the plenary.

16:41 Will this happen before you go on vacation, sir?

16:45 Well, it depends if the committee report will be completed before we go on recess and if

16:56 the committee rules because we have a process. It doesn't go directly to plenary. It will

17:01 have to go to the committee rules. Then this will have to be deliberated in the committee

17:06 rules and then after the approval from the committee rules, then it will be submitted

17:10 to the plenary for adoption.

17:12 Basically, this will be up to the majority leader, is it not? The committee on rules

17:15 which will be congressman Nugrales.

17:18 Yes, the chairman of the committee rules is the majority leader. Now, there is really

17:24 a big probability that they could spend Christmas and New Year in the premises in the detention

17:33 center of congress if we could not act on this in the plenary. We remember that we only

17:40 have three days to go. There are so many legislative bills that have to be approved on third reading.

17:48 There are other bills on second reading. So, it depends on how it will go next week.

17:56 Sirigo Del Sur Second District Representative, Johnny Pimentel, sir. As always, thank you

18:00 so much for your time.

18:02 Thank you, Pinky.

18:03 Thank you for joining us here on The Source. I'm Pinky Webb. You're watching CNN Philippines.

18:08 This program is brought to you by...

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Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel | The Source

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