THE House Committee on Official Conduct and Ethics will meet Thursday, Feb. 17, to look into past and future ethics complaints against House members.
In his memorandum on Thursday, the committee chairman, Rep. Donald Manglona, informed Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez and other House members that the meeting will start at 1:30 p.m. in the House chamber, and will “address matters referred to the committee.” The memo did not elaborate.
Speaker Villagomez formed the standing committee in December 2021 and named Manglona as its chairman. The members are Reps. Sheila J. Babauta, Leila Staffler, Corina Magofna, Joseph Leepan Guerrero, Patrick San Nicolas and House Minority Leader Angel Demapan.
Each member of the special committee “shall make an affirmation under oath that he/she will perform his/her duties as provided in the rules, and that he/she will not disclose confidential information acquired by him/her as a result of his participation in the work of the committee,” the speaker’s memorandum stated.
He also said that the ethics committee was formed not necessarily to investigate the sexual abuse complaints against Rep. Edwin Propst.
“My intent is to establish this committee so that if any further ethics issue comes up in the future, we will have the committee already in place,” the speaker said.
Although the committee has been formed in response to an ethics complaint against Propst, the speaker said, “It’s not just for him.”
Donald Manglona
