Lawyer Michael Poa announced during a House hearing on Tuesday that he is no longer the spokesperson for Vice President Sara Duterte, stating that his contract with the Office of the Vice President (OVP) was terminated.
“I would like to inform the honorable committee that I am no longer connected with the Office of the Vice President (OVP),” Poa disclosed to the committee.
“My consultancy contract was already pre-terminated,” he added.
Poa disclosed this development during a House hearing that the OVP chose not to attend, calling it “unnecessary and plagued with irregularities.”
The hearing looks into the OVP’s utilization of budget, particularly the controversial confidential funds.
Poa, formerly an undersecretary and spokesperson for the Department of Education (DepEd), was appointed OVP spokesperson on August 19, serving for nearly three months.
His appointment came a month after he resigned from his DepEd post following Duterte’s decision to step down as vice chairperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and as Secretary of Education.
