Senate suspends NBN-ZTE hearings
By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:27:00 03/27/2008
MANILA, Philippines—The Senate has indefinitely put on hold its 13th hearing on the $329-million National Broadband Network (NBN) deal which would have alleged “Greedy Group plus plus” bagman Ruben Reyes as the main witness.
Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, chair of the blue ribbon committee, said the joint inquiry had decided to suspend any hearing until the Senate has come to grips with the ramifications of the Supreme Court decision Tuesday on the NBN deal with China’s ZTE Corp.
The court upheld the refusal of former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri to answer questions on grounds of executive privilege about the reaction of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo after he told her of an alleged attempt to bribe him to endorse the NBN contract.
Handcuffed
“Even while they say they have not diminished our power, they have handcuffed our power to investigate. While we can hold hearings, the SC indefinitely has ruled that our rules are ineffective at present,” Cayetano said.
“But it would be more prudent to wait for the motion for reconsideration or publication of the rules. We assure the public that the investigations will continue, only the hearings will be delayed,” he said.
Congress resumes session on April 28 after the Lenten break.
The court decision has “very broad implications” on how the Senate conducts hearings and deals with witnesses, Cayetano said.
He noted that many legal scholars had called to say that Chief Justice Reynato Puno’s dissenting opinion was “more persuasive, both moral and legal, and it espouses better principles.”
“We found certain parts to be very dangerous, especially the part where the SC ruled that executive privilege covered communication relating to quintessential and nondelegable power of the President to enter an executive agreement with other countries,” he said.
“This gives the President a broad scope to invoke executive privilege ... not to share with Congress and the public the circumstances regarding the Spratlys, NorthRail and SouthRail, and even rice shortage,” Cayetano said, referring to pending controversies under Senate scrutiny.
Trivialized
“As long as a deal involves foreign funds or diplomatic ties, we cannot look into that,” Cayetano said. “The President will be more popish than the pope, it means we cannot question her anymore unless we conduct a fact-finding exercise. She is considered infallible,” he added.
Cayetano admitted that the court effectively curtailed the investigative powers of the Senate not only in investigations but even in the budget hearings.
“This decision is too heavy, we cannot accept that any executive agreement that is commercial in nature involving billions of pesos cannot be reviewed by the Senate,” he said.
“The SC trivialized our fact-finding function by saying this is not critical or the information we have is enough,” he said.
Cayetano said the court practically limited the kind of information the Senate could get in hearings in aid of legislation.
Constitutional crisis
Cayetano warned of a possible “constitutional crisis” when one of the branches of government was constrained with the decision of an equal.
He said this happened in the United States when the Kennedy administration ignored the Supreme Court decision on the Cuban missile crisis. “At this point, we are not ready to go against the SC beyond the legal remedies,” Cayetano said.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson said that whether right or wrong, the Senate had no choice but to abide by the decision. But he argued that the Senate should continue with its probe and deal with the legal consequences. He noted that the court did not bar the Senate from inviting Neri again.
Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II concurred with Lacson that he did not expect the court to change its mind on its decision. Roxas said that the Senate should only resume its hearing if a new witness would come forward since he expected Neri to just invoke executive privilege to parry the questions.
Greedy group
Cayetano said that Ruben Reyes had told the Senate through his lawyers that he would attend the next hearing although he noted that Reyes was only available three weeks from now.
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada said he was looking forward to Reyes’ testimony, which could be more “revealing” than that told by Neri or another Greedy Group member, cable TV executive Leo San Miguel, who appeared in the Senate in the 12th hearing of the NBN and denied any knowledge of kickbacks.
Estrada said that as the “bagman” of the Greedy Group, Reyes had plenty to say about the under-the-table financial transactions that led to the overpricing of NBN. The group is said to include Ms Arroyo and her husband, according to previous testimony.
Palace strategy
Estrada said that Reyes would also be asked about his links to the Palace and military, with special emphasis on his role in the “Hello Garci” scandal where he was believed to have actively participated in the wiretapping operations.
Cayetano said that the court decision fell in line with Malacañang’s strategy to delay the NBN hearing until the end of this year when the 2010 elections would take public interest away from the congressional probes.
In the House of Representatives, some members assailed the court ruling.
“Executive privilege may potentially be invoked to cover up a wrongdoing. It creates a bad precedent,” said Parañaque Rep Roilo Golez.
“This is a derogation of the power of Congress,” administration Rep. Antonio Cuenco of Cebu said. His opinion was shared by Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño.
Speaker Prospero Nograles said the House would look into the effects of the court ruling. “There is mutual respect between the House and the Executive so there is really no need to be alarmed,” he said.
Typical Filipino mentality
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said the ruling “removed the wind from their sails” and the senators’ reaction was “typical” of the “mentality of some Filipinos.”
“When they lose, they sulk,” Gonzalez said.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said he was leaving it up to Neri to decide if he should show up in the Senate inquiry.
“He is a Cabinet member, he knows where he stands,” Ermita said. With reports from Dona Z. Pazzibugan, TJ Burgonio, Norman Bordadora and Michael Lim Ubac
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