Thursday, March 06, 2008 Glo scraps EO, keeps privilege
PRESIDENT Arroyo revoked yesterday a controversial order that had blocked Cabinet members and other officials from testifying in a Senate probe into a corruption scandal battering her administration.
At the same time, however, her chief legal counsel Sergio Apostol pointed out that President Arroyo retains the right of executive privilege, since that is guaranteed by the Constitution.
President Arroyo made the decision after meeting with influential Roman Catholic bishops, who demanded last week that she lift Executive Order 464. That order barred officials from testifying in the Senate without her permission.
In a statement, Arroyo said she was revoking the order, meaning that officials could no longer invoke it “to excuse non-attendance from legislative inquiries.”
“The President, like anybody else, is after the truth. The President listens to the people,” spokesman Ignacio Bunye said. “She believes that it’s in the best interest of everybody to heal our present conflict.”
Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, who heads the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, welcomed Arroyo’s decision but added it was only “a first step.”
Cabinet members have used Arroyo’s order to avoid testifying in a probe by the opposition-dominated Senate into a $329-million telecommunications deal, endorsed by Arroyo, which was allegedly tainted by bribery.
Separation
Malacañang issued EO 464 in September 2005 to ensure “observance of the principle of separation of powers, adherence to the rule on executive privilege and respect for the rights of public officials appearing in legislative inquiries in aid of legislation.”
It was provoked by the appearance of National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales in a Senate inquiry that ended in his being detained and held in contempt, after he refused to answer some questions.
Aside from the abolition of EO 464, the bishops also asked Arroyo to allow her subordinates to reveal any corrupt acts, particularly about the national broadband network deal, without being obstructed in their testimony, no matter who is involved.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court (SC) said its proposal for the Senate and lawyers of Commission on Higher Education (Ched) Chairman Romulo Neri to reach a compromise agreement would end the impasse in the inquiry.
Chief Justice Reynato Puno and Associate Justice Antonio Carpio suggested that Neri attend the Senate hearings anew and testify on the scandal, provided that the senators will respect his invocation of executive privilege on three questions.
3 questions
These questions were: whether President Arroyo followed up with Neri regarding the ZTE contract; whether she ordered the ZTE contract prioritized; and, what the President said after being told that the Neri was offered a bribe.
The two justices proposed that those questions that Neri would refuse to answer, on the ground of executive privilege, would have to be brought back to the SC. The court can then examine whether executive privilege was validly invoked.
SC spokesman Midas Marquez downplayed the allegations of the Black and White Movement that the SC’s proposal was more favorable to Malacañang because it would prevent the senators from prying answers from Neri.
Midas explained that the court cannot take away the President’s executive privilege as this is an inherent power, and what the court can only do is to define its parameters.
“I don’t think this is really siding with anyone but with what the principle of executive privilege provides,” he said.
Malacañang branded the SC compromise agreement that would enable Neri to testify again in the Senate hearings on the questionable NBN contract as a “landmark decision.” (AP/Sunnex)
