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Friday, September 15, 2006
Good gov’t head, senator clash in Senate hearing
MANILA -- The Senate inquiry into alleged looting of assets of a government- sequestered corporation turned into a battle arena when Senator Richard Gordon and Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) Chairman Camilo Sabio figured in a shouting match.
The verbal tussle stemmed from their contradicting interpretations of Executive Order 1 issued by former President Corazon Aquino in February 1986 to create the PCGG.
Sabio said the Senate hearing was not also in aid of legislation so it was useless. “I can’t understand holding this inquiry. I’m here not to answer questions but to prove that the Senate is over and above the law.”
The PCGG chairman, who was ordered arrested by the Senate on Wednesday after he snubbed for the third time a Senate hearing on the case, filed a writ of habeas corpus before the Supreme Court and the petition was granted on Thursday.
The Senate was ordered to bring Sabio before the High Tribunal on September 21 at 1 p.m. The granting of the plea was reached during an SC special en banc session.
Sabio, who is now detained at the Senate, appeared in Thursday’s hearing of two Senate committees on the alleged looting of the assets of Philcomsat Holdings Corporation.
Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, who earlier inhibited himself from asking questions, failed to control himself and grilled Sabio. “Are you saying that this inquiry is not in aid of legislation?” a bewildered Enrile asked.
“This is not in aid of legislation, so it is not necessary. Let the Supreme Court decide on the issue (on the legality of EO 1),” Sabio said.
Gordon, chairman of the Senate committee on government corporations and public enterprises that is hearing the alleged anomaly in Philcomsat, then cited a ruling by the SC belying Sabio’s claim that PCGG officials cannot be subjected to any congressional inquiry as stated in EO 1.
While explaining, Sabio tried to interrupt Gordon, who shouted at the PCGG chief. “Let me finish, let me finish, let me finish! I am the chief here and you’re under arrest.”
Sabio shouted in return, accusing the senator of abusing him but the senator said the PCGG chair was interrupting him.
Tension subsided for a while when Sabio became silent as Gordon continued citing a High Tribunal ruling in 2003 recognizing that the Senate blue ribbon committee’s hearing was lawful.
But Sabio again tried to interrupt Gordon whom he also accused of reading the decision without understanding.
“You’re all in pretension, you’re a great actor,” the senator shouted at the PCGG chief, whose blood pressure had been fluctuating and yet still engaged in a shouting match with Gordon.
Enrile intervened and recommended that Sabio be brought out of the room and “thrown into his cell”, but Gordon declined saying it was important that the PCGG chief was present so he could hear allegations against him and his commissioners.
“It’s been 20 years since the PCGG was created and yet you still have no report of your accomplishments. You’re turning these corporations (sequestered firms of Marcos cronies) into ‘milking cows’,” Gordon said.
Sabio challenged Gordon to a debate in the SC where there are pending cases on the issuance of arrest warrants against Sabio and his four commissioners and other officials of Philcomsat.
“I don’t want you to leave (the hearing) but to listen to the complaints that Commissioner (Ricardo) Abcede received a car and I want you to answer that, that your men are receiving loans (from Philcomsat) in millions at only six percent interest,” Gordon said.
After berating Sabio, Gordon then asked the doctor to check his blood pressure, but Sabio told Gordon to stop insulting him.
After the verbal draw, Gordon stood and went to Sabio and poured drinking water in Sabio’s glass, eliciting laughter from the people attending the hearing. It was the turn of Senator Sergio Osmeńa III to ask the PCGG chief questions.
Sabio answered some questions of Osmena possibly because of his mild-mannered way of dealing with the PCGG chief. Among the responses he gave to was a query on the supposed P10,000 a month salary of PCGG officials who were appointed in sequestered corporations like Philcomsat.
“But the board (of the corporations) still has the say if it wants to give salaries more than what is stated in the memorandum circular (on the P10,000 monthly salary),” Sabio explained.
Despite the appearance of the PCGG chief in the hearing, Gordon said he will remain in the custody of the Senate until Abcede and Commissioners Nicasio
Conti, Tereso Javier, and Narciso Nario appear or are arrested.
“He will still be a guest and will receive first class treatment in the Senate clinic. An ambulance is always in standby (in case Sabio needs to be taken to hospital). He’s alive and well and kicking,” Gordon said.
Malacańang, meanwhile, is hoping that the Senate and the PCGG would have a “meeting of minds” to settle their differences.
Presidential adviser for political affairs Gabriel Claudio said what transpired in the Senate, particularly the heated exchange between Senator Gordon and Sabio, was “a horrible scene, most regrettable and unfortunate.”
Claudio said he is sure that neither Gordon nor Sabio wanted the verbal exchange to happen.
“We hope a compromise or meeting of minds can be arrived at without awaiting or relying on the Supreme Court to adjudicate the differences between the two sides. The executive is wiling to work with the Senate in arriving at some kind of solution,” he added.
At the House of Representatives, pro-administration congressmen, for their part, appealed to their counterparts in the Senate to go easy on arresting executive officials who defy congressional hearings.
House Deputy Speaker for Mindanao Gerry Salapuddin and Representative Douglas Cagas of Davao del Sur said this would enable the Senate to avoid a possible constitutional crisis.
Salapuddin and Cagas suggested to the senators, who have recently ordered the arrest of all PCGG commissioners, to hold a dialogue instead with the executive to settle the issue.
Senators, at the same time, should be reminded that some executive officials refuse to appear before their hearings at the Senate because of fear of being prejudged and criticized in public.
They said while the senators have the right to exercise their oversight function, there have been cases that the functions were “abused”.
The exercise, they added, can be done without "lambasting, prejudging, and unjustly” accusing officials during congressional inquiries.
Cagas, for his part, hit at the senators for their bullying tactics.
“When officials refuse to give in to their bullying tactics, they are then arrested and harassed unduly,” he said.
Cagas asked the Senate not to continue with its plan to have r PCGG commissioners and other government officials arrested should they defy participation in inquiries.
If the Senate continues with its bullying and harassment, then the rift between the Senate and the Palace would only cause “additional political stalemate” in the country. (REC/JMR/DBP/Sunnex)
(September 15, 2006 issue)
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