Friday, May 16, 2008 SC to rule on executive privilege next month
THE Supreme Court (SC) is set to rule in the first week of June on the motion for reconsideration sought by the senators assailing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's invocation of executive privilege in three questions related to the controversial US$329 million national broadband network (NBN) project awarded to the Chinese firm ZTE Corp.
In an ambush interview during the oath-taking ceremony for newly appointed Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chairperson Leila de Lima, Chief Justice Reynato Puno said the last pleading has already been submitted to the en banc.
"The last pleading has been submitted. We'll take this up in our agenda in the first week of June," he said.
Puno said the high court does not feel the least bit pressured in the wake of reports that the Senate will reopen its investigation on the NBN deal following a new set of witnesses implicating Arroyo in the anomalous transaction.
He said the tribunal will limit its resolution on the three questions posed by the respondent Senate committees to former planning secretary Romulo Neri, which he claimed are covered by executive privilege.
The three questions were: whether the President followed up the NBN-ZTE project with Neri; whether Neri was dictated to prioritize the NBN-ZTE project; and whether the President told him to go ahead and approve the project after being told about the alleged bribe.
"The decision of the court will be limited in resolving whether the three questions are encompassed by the executive privilege of the President," Puno said.
Voting 9-6 last March 25, the high court ruled that Malacañang correctly applied executive privilege in refusing to answer the three questions and in enjoining senators from compelling Neri to testify on confidential matters, saying doing so would be detrimental to the country's diplomatic relations with China.
The decision, penned by Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, gave weight on the argument of Neri's lawyer Antonio Bautista that Neri's conversations with the President "dealt with delicate and sensitive national security and diplomatic matters relating to the impact of the bribery scandal involving high government officials and the possible loss of confidence of foreign investors and lenders in the country."
The decision is also anchored on technicalities ensuing from the failure of the Senate to publish its rules at the opening of the 14th Congress.
Executive privilege is a recognized right of the President to withhold from Congress, the courts and the public any information regarded as vital to the national interest. The information could include conversations and correspondence between the President and her officials pertaining to the military, diplomatic, and other national security issues.
Neri filed the suit with the SC after the Senate ordered his arrest following his failure to heed their subpoenas for him to appear during the inquiry. His petition sought the SC ruling that would set the parameters in the invocation of executive privilege in the light of the communications between him and the President on the controversial national broadband deal.
His invocation of executive privilege on these questions has prompted the senators to cite him for contempt and to issue a warrant for his arrest.
Last May 6, the Senate committees on accountability, trade and national defense asked the SC to reconsider its March 25 decision and to render a new decision dismissing Neri's petition to stop the Senate from implementing his arrest due to a citation for contempt for his failure to appear during its scheduled hearings on the national broadband deal.
The respondent committees said the court, in rendering its decision, failed to take into account specific provisions of the Constitution pertaining to securing foreign loans, "which weigh heavily against executive secrecy and in favor of disclosure, and which should therefore prevail over any general presumption of privilege."
The committees added that the Neri decision "seriously strikes a debilitating blow" to the mechanism of checks and balances among the three departments of government which is designed to ensure the continued survival of a living and growing republican state.
Senators said the Neri decision effectively provided the executive department with a simple, ready and expedient tool to resist legitimate legislative inquiry after the court legitimized the mere presentation by the executive department to the Senate of a letter invoking executive privilege. (ECV/Sunnex)
