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Wednesday, March 05, 2008
SC: Neri will attend Senate probe on NBN mess
MANILA -- The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday evening said Commission on Higher Education (Ched) Romulo Neri will attend the Senate inquiry on the questionable US$329 million national broadband network (NBN) deal with China's ZTE Corp.
Arroyo Watch: Sun.Star blog on President Arroyo
This was the initial agreement reached by magistrates after hours of oral arguments on Neri's petition to stop the Senate from arresting him after refusing to testify at the Senate.
Arroyo Watch: Sun.Star blog on President Arroyo
The SC however said that senators cannot ask Neri questions about his supposed conversation with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Lawyers for Neri have failed to provide the basis for his invocation of executive privilege to evade questions in the Senate hearing on the NBN mess.
Magistrates grilled lawyer Antonio Bautista whether Neri correctly involved executive privilege, by authority of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, to avoid disclosing matters that may impair national security, and diplomatic and economic relations with China.
Neri filed a petition in his capacity as former director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), which approved the NBN project, to stop the Senate from implementing the warrant for his arrest following a contempt citation issued by three committees investigating the NBN fiasco.
Neri, who was conspicuously absent in the hearing of his petition, and First Gentleman Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo filed Tuesday their counter affidavits on the graft charges filed by former Vice President Teofisto Guingona at the Ombudsman.
Arroyo appeared in the Ombudsman investigation into the NBN controversy. He told the Ombudsman that he should be removed from the list of respondents.
Related stories:
Mike Arroyo attends Ombud probe on NBN scandal
Ex-Cabinet officials suggest five steps to Arroyo on NBN mess
Legislative tyranny
According to Bautista, the respondent Senate committees on national defense, trade and blue ribbon was guilty of "legislative tyranny" on insisting that Neri answer questions posted to him during the legislative inquiry on the ZTE deal.
Revealing the content of the privileged communication will likely "open the President to condemnation."
Bautista said the subject conversations between Neri and Arroyo "dealt with delicate and sensitive national security and diplomatic matters relating to the impact of bribery scandal involving high government officials and the possible loss of confidence of foreign investors and lenders in the Philippines."
He reiterated that any future appearances before the Senate should first be preceded by moves of the Senate to "send their questions in advance," pointing out that under the present set-up, "any senator can ask any question under the sun."
National security
Upon interpellation by Associate Justice Antonio Carpio why Neri thought that some military secrets might adversely impact on national security, Bautista said this was just an assumption since the Senate committee on national defense was involved in the investigation.
Bautista said privileged communication would be rendered inutile if not honored by the senators. At one point, he added that not all dealings of the President can be made public, and revealing those privileged communications to the public would be an embarrassment, like washing dirty linens before other countries.
"You don't want the President to rule in a fishbowl, isn't that what transparency means? The President can't operate in that manner. Transparency is not absolute, just like freedom of the press," he said, adding that details of the transactions regarding the NBN-ZTE deal "would affect our friendly relations with other governments."
But Carpio pursued his questioning by asking if it was not part of the Senate's inherent powers to investigate the alleged bribery in the NBN contract, even if it involved Chinese officials.
"How should we weigh between public disclosure (of the privileged communication) or to protect the Chinese officials? Should we protect diplomatic relations as against public interest?" Carpio said.
"Is there anything legally or morally wrong if the President follows up with Neri on the project, being the chairman of the Neda Board? If not, then why is Neri afraid?" the justice added.
Transparency
Associate Justice Adolfo Azcuna, citing the constitutional provision on the accountability of public officers cited that "public officers are at all times accountable to the people" and that "in case of doubt, the SC will rule in favor of transparency."
Chief Justice Reynato Puno, for his part, also downplayed the arguments of Neri's lawyers that he is entitled to resort to executive privilege, pointing out that there was no aspect in the scuttled NBN contract that directly involved the national security and diplomatic relations, or if it was ever referred to the defense or foreign affairs department prior to its approval.
"Yet you are invoking executive privilege because allegedly these has serious national security?" he told Bautista.
Puno cited the three written questions posed by the Senate to compel Neri to appear before its inquiry. These questions were: (1) Did the President have any interest in the NBN project? (2) Did the President order Neri to prioritize the NBN? and (3) Did she order the continuance of the project despite his allegations of bribery?
Debilitate
Puno asked Bautista's co-lawyer Paul Lentejas how revealing the questions posed by the Senate could "debilitate" the President if indeed the project was aboveboard.
"If the President wants to prioritize this project, why should the heavens fall on the President?" he asked.
In a separate interview prior to the oral arguments, Senator Manuel "Mar" Roxas II who is chairman of the Senate committee on trade, which is conducting the inquiries, said Neri appeared to be covering up for the President in desperately invoking executive privilege.
Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera, who was also at the hearing but was not asked by the SC to join the oral arguments on behalf of government, insisted there was no contumacious act committed by Neri in not attending the Senate hearings. (ECV/Sunnex) For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Bacolod. (March 5, 2008 issue)
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Arroyo revokes EO 464