MANILA, Philippines -- Commission on Higher Education chairman Romulo Neri can invoke executive privilege and cannot be compelled to answer three questions the Senate feels is crucial to getting to the bottom of the scandal-tainted national broadband network (NBN) deal, the Supreme Court has ruled.

Voting 6-9, the justices also ruled that the Senate cannot cite Neri or anyone in contempt because the rules of procedure of the 14th Congress had not been published, Supreme Court spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said.

Among those who dissented with the majority decision was Chief Justice Reynato Puno.

The Senate can also summon Neri, but only to answer questions other than the three, which are the same ones contained in a compromise the high court suggested after Neri filed his petition against an arrest order issued against him by the Senate after he refused to attend any more hearings of the inquiry into the cancelled NBN contract between the government and China’s ZTE Corp.

The questions are: “Did the President [Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo] follow up with you on the ZTE contract? Did she tell you to prioritize the ZTE contract? Despite knowing the flaws of the contract did she tell you to approve it?”

Marquez also said that while the decision only applies, to Neri’s case, executive privilege may still be invoked in similar situations.

Aside from Associate Justice Teresita de Castro, who penned the decision, those who made up the majority were Justices Leonardo Quisumbing, Renato Corona, Dante Tinga, Eduardo Nachura, Ruben Reyes, Nenita Chico-Nazario, Presbitero Velasco and Arturo Brion.

With Puno in dissenting were Justices Antonio Carpio, Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, Conchita Carpio-Morales, Adolf Azcuna and Alicia Austria-Martinez.

In his 120-page dissenting opinion, Puno said neither Neri nor Ermita explained how diplomatic secrets would be exposed at the expense of national interest if the CHED chairman answered the three questions.

Neri, in particular, “failed to provide the Court knowledge of the circumstances with which the Court can determine whether there is reasonable danger that his answers to the three disputed questions would indeed divulge secrets that would compromise our national security," Puno said.

The chief justice said invoking privileged communication cannot outweigh the need of the Senate for the information, particularly the answers to the three questions.

"Indisputably, these questions are pertinent to the subject matter of their investigation and there is no effective substitute for the information coming from a reply to these questions. In the absence of the information they seek, the Senate Committees' function of intelligently enacting laws…cannot but be seriously impaired. With all these considerations factored into the equation, we have to strike the balance in favor of the respondent Senate Committees and compel petitioner Neri to answer the three disputed questions," Puno said.

Malacañang immediately welcomed the decision.

“We respect the decision of the Supreme Court,” Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said in a statement.

“We hope that that, looking forward, the Senate and the executive can work out mutually acceptable rules on appearances in Senate inquiries in aid of legislation, which will guarantee the rights of resource persons and parties affected by congressional hearings, as stipulated by the Constitution,” he said.

Deputy presidential spokesman Anthony Golez said the Supreme Court reinforced the independence and co-equality of the three branches of government even as he dispelled speculation Arroyo had influenced the tribunal’s ruling.

He called such an idea “dangerous” and showed disrespect for the high court, “which is against the law.”

"I am disappointed but not discouraged," opposition Senator Alan Peter Cayetano said. "The search for the whole truth must and will continue."

Cayetano chairs the blue-ribbon committee spearheading the NBN probe.

Senator Manuel Roxas II, another opposition lawmaker, said he respected the decision but believed executive privilege "should not be applied to conceal the truth about an anomalous public transaction."

Neri, in his petition and supplemental petition, said his absence from the November 20, 2007 hearing of the Senate inquiry, for which an order for his arrest was issued, was duly answered by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, who invoked executive privilege for the then socioeconomic planning secretary “by order of the president.”

Neri said Malacañang was concerned about “the impact of the bribery scandal involving high government officials on the country’s diplomatic relations and economic and military affairs, and the possible loss of confidence of foreign investors and lenders in the Philippines.”

Neri had earlier appeared before the Senate to say former Commission on Elections commissioner Benjamin Abalos Sr. had allegedly offered him a bribe to endorse the NBN project, which was awarded to China’s ZTE Corp. for $329-million.

Neri told the Senate that he told President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo about the bribe offer but refused to say what happened next.

According to other witness testimonies, Neri told friends in private that Arroyo asked him not to accept the bribe but to endorse the deal anyway. Neri has denied that she ordered him to have the deal approved.

The contract was cancelled by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo soon after the Senate opened its inquiry into allegations the deal was tainted by kickbacks and overpricing, to which her husband, Jose Miguel, was also implicated.

During subsequent hearings, a witness claimed Arroyo herself had profited from the alleged kickbacks.

All those accused have denied the allegations. The Office of the Ombudsman is investigating.

The scandal and nationally televised hearings have sparked opposition protests and mounting calls for Arroyo to resign. She has vowed to finish the last two years of her term.

Neri, a respected economist, has become a thorn in the side of senators because of his reluctance to testify about what Arroyo knew about the deal.

Last month, a former consultant and key witness in the probe told the Senate that Neri was so upset when Arroyo ignored his claims of attempted bribery that he considered resigning.