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MANILA.
The High Tribunal's ruling on the petition of Commission on
Higher Education chair Romulo Neri in connection with the
Senate's investigation on the anomalous National Broadband
Network (NBN) contract with Chinese firm, ZTE Corp., did not
only castrate Congress' power of legislative inquiry but also
has the effect of covering up a crime.
While
the Supreme Court's (SC) decision upholding the doctrine of
executive privilege only centered on the three questions related
to Neri's conversations with President Arroyo about the NBN-ZTE
contract, this opens the door for possible abuse of the doctrine
in other Senate inquiries, interviews by abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak
showed.
Moreover,
as one senator puts it, "it has the effect of covering
up a crime, although unintentionally."
The
SC, voting 9-6, ruled that the three questions that Neri had
refused to answer in the Senate probe were covered by executive
privilege since they concerned diplomatic matters.
The
three questions are: 1) whether the President followed up
the NBN-ZTE project with Neri; 2) whether Neri was dictated
by the President to prioritize the NBN-ZTE project; and 3)
whether he was told by the President to go ahead with the
project after being told of the alleged bribe offer
DIVIDED
COURT
The
SC also ruled, 10 to 5, that the arrest warrant issued against
him was invalid since the Senate has not published its rules.
"We
have a divided court. Neri cannot be cited for contempt by
the Senate nor can he be arrested," SC spokesman Midas
Marquez said.
Marquez,
citing the ruling, said the SC held that the Senate committed
grave abuse of discretion in issuing the arrest warrant.
SENATE
EMASCULATED
Opposition
Senator Aquilino Pimentel said the SC committed a "terrible
decision" in favoring Neri's defense that the three questions
were covered by executive privilege, adding it "would
emasculate the Senate's investigative function."
He
said the ruling has the effect of producing "a thousand
other Neris who will defy the Senate and stifle efforts to
come up with the truth. The net effect is you will have a
witness who can say half-truths and get away with it."
Senate
President Manuel Villar said the ruling "prevents the
truth from coming out" while Senator Francis Pangilinan
said the Senate "intends to correct and remedy the situation
by legally asserting our prerogatives as a co-equal branch."
SENDS
WRONG SIGNAL
Senate
private counsel Carlos Medina, echoing Pimentel's fear, said
the decision could embolden other Cabinet officials and government
executives to invoke the cloak of executive privilege in other
inquiries involving anomalies.
"It
could send the wrong signal to the executive branch, to abuse
the doctrine of executive privilege to block Senate investigations,"
he said.
Aside
from clipping the Senate's congressional right to information,
Pimentel said the decision makes the SC an unwitting party
to a cover up.
"When
you say that you cannot ask these questions which will lead
to the establishment that a crime has been committed, that
is the net effect," he said.
PUBLIC'S
RIGHT TO KNOW
Although
less direct in his assessment, Pangilinan stressed that the
public "deserved to know whether or not the president
acted unlawfully after having been informed that the NBN-ZTE
deal then under negotiations was tainted with unlawful and
illegal acts.
He
added: "I don't see how executive privilege can be allowed
under these circumstances."
The
issue of whether executive privilege can be invoked to cover
up a possible commission of a crime was raised during the
SC oral argument following the assertion of Senate probers
that President Arroyo may have committed some irregularity
in connection with the approval of the NBN-ZTE contract.
Neri
has told the Senate that he told the President about the 200
million bribe offer of then Commission on Elections chair
Benjamin Abalos in exchange for NEDA's go signal of the broadband
deal.
Neri
was then chair of the National Economic Development Authority
when the project was being finalized.
SC
DIDN'T TAKE UP
CRIME ISSUE
Although
it was brought up in the oral argument, Marquez said the justices
did not touch on the issue of whether a criminal act has been
committed. He said the magistrates decided to favor Neri since
the alleged information that the Senate wanted covered diplomatic
concerns.
It
should be noted however that the Department of Foreign Affairs
is out of the loop on the NBN-ZTE project, and that Neri simply
claimed executive privilege without stating the reasons for
invoking it.
FACTUAL
ERROR ON RULES
Pimentel
also scored as "factual error" the SC's finding
that the arrest warrant was not valid since it failed to publish
its rules when the present Congress opened.
Unlike
members of the House of Representatives whose term ends every
three years, he said "the Senate is a continuing body
since one-half of the members continue to exist" every
change in Congress.
Medina
said the Senate is going to file a motion for reconsideration
to reverse the ruling, pointing out that the voting was not
lopsided.
He
said that the Senate only has to convince two justices to
change their position to gain a favorable ruling.
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