The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee will be issuing a subpoena to Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez to attend the ongoing hearings on the controversial sugar importation order.
The panel led by Blue Ribbon Committee Chairperson Francis Tolentino had an executive session to discuss the issuance of subpoena. The panel voted in a secret balloting act. The motion was raised by Senator Risa Hontiveros.
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Eleven senators voted to subpoena Rodriguez, three voted no while three others abstained.
Rodriguez said that his absence in hearings was due to the orders of the President.
“I regret to inform the Senate that per instructions of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. I will not be able to attend the hearings,” he said in a sworn letter.
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Rodriguez said he is willing to answer the queries of the senators through a written response.
The official said that he has received a draft memo on the controversial Sugar Order No. 4 that would have allowed the importation of some 300,000 metric tons of sugar but he ignored it because Marcos has yet to decide on it.
