In regular circumstances, a resource person in a House inquiry is not allowed to do direct examination to his fellow resource person.
House Committee on Justice chairman Rep. Reynaldo Umali defends the panel’s clearance to Department of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II to do direct examination in the inquiry on the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP).
On Tuesday, the said committee held an inquiry where it presented four convicts who are remitted at the NBP and the Justice secretary has raised questions to be answered by the witnesses.
The minority congressmen in the House of Representatives were pessimistic and found Aguirre’s direct examination as malicious and improper for a resource person.
But according to Cong. Umali, the DOJ head clarified that the DOJ chief has not violated any rule in the direct examination of the witnesses.
He cited that Senator Leila de Lima, when she was still the DOJ secretary, also did the same in the inquiry on the pork barrel fund scam.