Erwin Tulfo to issue show cause order vs Meta for failure to attend hearing

The Senate committee on games and amusement will be issuing a show cause order to social media giant Meta —the firm behind Facebook and Instagram— for its failure to attend the panel’s hearing on the proliferation of online gambling in the country.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Senator Erwin Tulfo, committee chairperson, was visibly irked after the panel’s secretariat read Meta’s excuse letter requesting a separate meeting with his office instead of attending the hearing as its “relevant subject matter experts are based in Singapore and the US, and are currently unavailable due to prior commitments.”

The senator said that Meta should respect the Senate and expressed dismay that the social media giant requested to arrange a meeting with him at a “suitable time.”

“No. Why are they dictating this committee, kung kelan sila attend? (when they will attend?)”

Tulfo was about to question Meta why online gambling advertisements proliferated on its social media platforms despite ongoing moves by e-wallets to de-link online gambling sites.

The senator said the panel will issue a show cause order addressed to its country manager in the Philippines.

“That's what we're going to do, to issue a showcase order why they should not be subpoenaed for not attending and for not complying with our request to attend,” he said.

“I want his attendance here, otherwise this committee will be forced to send a subpoena for him,” Tulfo said, referring to Genixon David —the public policy manager of Facebook Philippines Representative Office.

“Kung kailangan i-subpoena ang country representative nila ay ipa-subpoena,” the senator said.

(If we need to subpoena their country manager, then we will issue a subpoena.)

GMA News Online reached out to Meta/Facebook Philippines for comment. The story will be updated once a response has been received. 

“This is a hearing. We have a problem here and this is a national problem…Imagine, there's like 65% of Filipinos who are hooked in online gambling and that's what we're trying to find a solution right now," the senator said. —AOL/VBL, GMA Integrated News