|
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Senate orders arrest of Neri, Lozada over NBN deal
MANILA -- The Senate on Wednesday ordered the arrest of National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Director General Romulo Neri and Philippine Forest Corp. (PFC) chief executive officer Roberto Lozada for their failure to attend the hearing on the controversial National Broadband Network (NBN) deal.
Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, a member of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee looking into the NBN controversy, made the move to arrest Neri and Lozada as he explained that Senate rules must be respected and be enforced.
Sun.Star Network Online's coverage of the Sinulog 2008 Festival
Majority of the senators supported Enrile's recommendation, which was eventually signed by Senate President Manuel "Manny" Villar.
"The arrest is long overdue, our people deserve the truth!" said Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan.
Pangilinan added: "The Blue Ribbon committee must assert its authority and power over non-cooperative witnesses. We cannot allow the non attendance of witnesses to undermine the institution's constitutional duty to act as a check and balance on other branches of government."
"This should serve as a warning to other witnesses who may think twice before obeying summons from the Senate. We will enforce our rules to accomplish our constitutional duty and that includes arresting those who unjustly refuse to cooperate," he said.
Lozada left for Hong Kong two hours before the Senate resumed its inquiry Wednesday into the anomalous US$329-million NBN deal entered by the government with China's ZTE Corp. Neri reportedly appointed him as technical consultant for the contract.
Lozada, a witness of Senator Panfilo Lacson, was scheduled to testify Wednesday, but sent word that he could not do so because he was on an official trip to London.
Neri, on the other hand, invoked executive privilege.
Whistleblower Jose de Venecia III, son of House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., was also supposed to attend the hearing, but backed off after learning of Lozada's absence.
Malacañang, meanwhile, ordered its allies in the House of Representatives to stop bickering, specifically Speaker de Venecia from talking about the ZTE controversy and the Speaker's critics from plotting his ouster.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the infighting in the House does not contribute to overall political stability, which also affects the country's economic growth.
Ermita, who is also Lakas Christian-Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) regional chairman for Southern Tagalog, said he is looking forward to February 7, when the Lakas-CMD directorate would assemble for its 15th anniversary and iron out the differences among the members and officials.
"I wish that these noises, or grumbling, if any, could stop so that we can have political stability. We want some harmony in the political environment," he said.
Ermita said the ZTE issue "should not be used anymore to try to fan any discontent" among those who are against Speaker de Venecia.
He noted that the Speaker's son has said he will no longer testify before the Senate because he has nothing more to say and he sought closure to the investigation.
"What is important here is we know that the President and Speaker de Venecia are getting along well. What we are preparing for is how to strengthen the ruling party, especially during the Lakas directorate assembly. So I wish we could put a stop to this," he said.
He said if Speaker de Venecia knows that the ZTE issue has been used against his leadership, he will "stop talking about it and continue to influence people that he can influence, especially his son from not talking about it in the future." (CPB/JMR/Sunnex)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Iloilo. (January 31, 2008 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
|
|
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
