SC junks Cassandra Ong’s petition vs. congressional probe into POGOs

The Supreme Court (SC) has dismissed the petition filed by Cassandra Li Ong against the Senate and House of Representatives committees that conducted separate investigations into anomalies involving Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs). 

The SC upheld the power of the Congress to hold hearings in aid of legislation, according to the May 6 decision, which was made public on Friday. 

The decision came after Ong, who was linked to the operations of the raided Lucky South 99 in Porac, Pampanga, filed a petition to enjoin the Senate committees and the House QuadComm from violating her right to remain silent and right against self-incrimination. 

She also claimed that the House QuadComm “abused their powers and exceeded their jurisdiction in conducting inquiries in aid of legislation” by pressuring her to give information. 

But the SC said that the legislative’s power to conduct an inquiry in aid of legislation was implied in the 1935 and 1973 versions of the Constitution and was expressed in the present 1987 Constitution. 

“Jurisprudence confirms that this power is available to the Senate and the HOR [House of Representatives], including their respective committees,” the SC said in the decision written by Associate Justice Jhosep Lopez.

The SC also said that the legislature has the authority to cite individuals in contempt and, if necessary, order their arrest “to carry out the coercive process of compelling attendance, testimony, and production of documents relevant and material in a legislative inquiry.” 

The high court also said that Ong “broadly” invoked her right against self-incrimination without specifying a question that would call for an incriminating response. 

“Video recordings of the purported portions of the hearing in a storage device were made to the instant petition, but these are unverified and unauthenticated,” the decision read. “Petitioner also admits the lack of contextualization of these video recordings, as she undertook to file a supplemental petition to purportedly explain the context of these video recordings in relation to the arguments in the instant petition.” 

The SC also ruled that “persons who were invited as resource persons to a legislative inquiry cannot invoke their right to counsel.” 

“Petitioner’s prayer for the conduct of oral arguments should also be denied, as the relevant arguments raised in the pleadings were already sufficiently passed upon by this Court as discussed above,” the decision stated. 

In August 2024, the Department of Justice indicted Ong, who served as the authorized representative for the raided POGO hub in Porac, for disobedience to summons from the House of Representatives and obstruction of justice for harboring, concealing, or facilitating the escape of a criminal offender.

Ong and several others were also charged with qualified human trafficking in April.

GMA News Online has reached out to the camp of Ong for comment. —VBL, GMA Integrated News