MANILA. Philippines -- The arrest warrants issued against two government executives by the Senate for failing to appear in its investigation of an alleged anomalous transaction was in aid of “politics-as-usual,” President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s spokesman said Thursday.

At the same time, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye chided the Senate for not coming up with a proposed legislation on the center of the legislative body’s inquiry -- the National Broadband Network (NBN) project.

On Wednesday, the Senate ordered the arrests of socio-economic planning secretary Romulo Neri and a government consultant for the NBN project, Rodolfo Lozada, for ignoring the summons.

"We deplore the continued moves of the Senate in issuing warrants of arrest against executive officials. This is clearly not in aid of legislation, but in aid of politics-as-usual," Bunye said in a statement.

"After all the hearings and the hoopla, we have yet to see what legislation the Senate intends to propose at the expense of the privacy, dignity and rights of Cabinet secretaries and government functionaries," he said.

Bunye added that the NBN project has "long been cancelled" and the witnesses that senators were seeking "have said all they have to say."

The investigation "distract[s] the nation from its urgent business and disturb the momentum for growth and social reforms," Bunye said.

The NBN project was scrapped in late 2007 amid allegations that former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos tried to bribe Neri and businessman Jose De Venecia III, son of Speaker Jose de Venecia, so that China's ZTE Corp. could bag the multi-million dollar project.

The scandal has forced Abalos to resign as Comelec chairman.

In his testimony before the Senate last year, Neri confirmed the bribe attempt but refused to issue further statements regarding the President, citing executive privilege.