MANILA, Philippines -- The Catholic Bishops? Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) must understand that Executive Order 464 cannot just be scrapped, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said Wednesday.

EO 464 prevents an official from the executive department to testify in legislative inquiries unless allowed by the President.

The cancellation of this order was one of the points raised by the CBCP in its pastoral statement late Tuesday amid the present political crisis spawned by new allegations of corruption involving Arroyo, her family and business and political allies.

But Gonzalez said abolishing EO 464 would require ?careful study because there are laws and jurisprudence that have to be considered before we come up with a decision."

"CBCP should understand that there are parameters to be considered," Gonzalez said.

He said there was information that would require confidentiality such as trade secrets and matters of national security.

"Even the Supreme Court recognized this in its decision on EO 464," Gonzalez said.

The high court in 2006 ruled that EO 464 only covered first level officials of the government.

He added that revelation of secrets by a public officer was also punishable under the Revised Penal Code, referring to Article 229.

It provides that "any public officer who shall reveal any secret known to him by reason of his official capacity, or shall wrongfully deliver papers or copies of papers of which he may have charge and which should not be published, shall suffer the penalties of prision correccional in its medium and maximum periods, perpetual special disqualification, and a fine not exceeding 2,000 pesos if the revelation of such secrets or the delivery of such papers shall have caused serious damage to the public interest; otherwise, the penalties of prision correccional in its minimum period, temporary special disqualification and a fine not exceeding 50 pesos shall be imposed."

Gonzalez added that fighting corruption was always the agenda of the Arroyo government.

Gonzalez said the President was not prohibiting her subordinates from appearing before legislative inquiries. However, he noted that the legislators were, oftentimes, going beyond their authority when questioning ranking officials of the government.

"They must show respect to the people they invite," Gonzalez said.