MANILA, Philippines 鈥� Show-cause orders have been issued against social media vloggers and content creators who were invited but skipped the House of Representatives tri-committee hearing on Tuesday.
At the hearing of the three panels on Tuesday, the committee secretariat said over 40 social media personalities were invited, but only three showed up 鈥� lawyer Ricky Tomotorgo, columnist and Publicus Asia founder Malou Tiquia, and vlogger Marc Gamboa.
Other invited guests offered various for skipping the hearing, with some saying that they received the letter on short notice, and others saying that they are either out of town or out of the country.
Others called out the tri committee for supposedly trying to stifle free speech 鈥� leading Abang Lingkod party-list Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano to remind the panels of their regulations.
鈥淛ust a matter of procedure, Mr. Chairman, a protocol of every committee hearing [鈥 All resource persons being invited in every hearing and absent should have an excuse letter or explanation. And if that excuse letter is valid and acceptable to the committee members, so we will just invite them to the next hearing,鈥� Paduano said.
鈥淏ut for all those resource persons with an excuse letter or without an excuse letter, they should be invited through a show-cause order for the next hearing, Mr. Chairman. So that鈥檚 a matter of protocol and procedural in every committee hearing, Mr. Chairman,鈥� he added.
Paduano also urged the House legal department to study the possible disbarment of former Presidential Communications Office (PCO) secretary and lawyer Trixie Cruz-Angeles due to her decision to ignore the tri-committee hearing.
Cruz-Angeles questioned the proceedings of the House 鈥� which Paduano said is grave because she is an officer of the court.
鈥淢r. Chairman, I have two motions. First motion is to issue a show cause order to Attorney Trixie Angeles. That is my first motion. My second motion is for the legal department of this House to study if ever there is a relation because [s]he is an officer of the court and [s]he should respect the constitutional duty of Congress and question of legality,鈥� he added.
Surigao del Norte 2nd District Rep. Robert Ace Barbers 鈥� whose privilege speeches became the subject of the tri-committee hearing 鈥� reiterated that the hearings are not meant to stifle free speech but to set standards and regulations to avoid the spread of disinformation and misinformation.
鈥淭his hearing is not meant to halt or suppress their freedom of speech. We do not have that goal. What we want to do is for us to craft a policy about the use of social media platforms.聽 We should have discipline, we should have a code of conduct, we should have ethics with regards to the use of social media,鈥� Barbers said in Filipino.
鈥淥ur point here is that we should have a regulatory policy just like for broadcasters, they have the KBP [Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas], and for writers in print they have the NUJP [National Union of Journalists of the Philippines].聽 We鈥檙e all bound by rules and regulations. So as in the use of social media platforms, unfortunately, we do not have these guidelines,鈥� he added.