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SENATE
investigators are poised to pursue next week their
stalled inquiry into alleged anomalies attending the
$329-million national broadband deal (NBN) with Zhong
Xing Telecom Equipment Co. Ltd. (ZTE) of China even as
senators vowed to respect the Supreme Court (SC) ruling
upholding the President’s exercise of executive
privilege.
Senate
President Manuel Villar viewed as “unfortunate” the SC
justices’ 9-6 decision favoring the President’s
privilege over the people’s constitutionally-guaranteed
right to information to get to the truth behind
allegations of bribery and kickbacks in the aborted
transaction.
“This is
unfortunate. The SC decision [on the case of former
economic planning secretary Romulo Neri] is a historical
blot in the nation’s cherished tenets of democracy,
truth and justice,” Villar said.
“We
respect the decision of the SC, but it has to be said
that those three questions that the magistrates said
should not be asked, are the same questions that are
left hanging on the people’s minds.”
Villar
was referring to the part of the SC ruling that upheld
Neri’s plea to prevent the Senate from compelling Neri
to answer three questions relevant to the Senate’s
broadband inquiry, namely: 1) Whether President Arroyo
approved the project in spite of the bribery disclosure;
2) Whether she had dictated on Neri to approve the
project; and 3) Whether she had followed up on her
directive.
The SC,
voting 10-5, also ruled as invalid the warrant of arrest
issued by the Senate on January 30 against Neri for
repeatedly ignoring Senate summons to appear anew in the
inquiry.
“While
we are saddened by this turn of events, our justices
have spoken and it has to be respected. However, we
assert that we are not faltering on our conviction that
an official action offensive to human rights and
disruptive of constitutionalism should not be
legitimized,” Villar said.
“We are
firm in the belief that public interest is superior. It
should come first before anything, and anyone else
according to the Constitution. The institution of the
Senate will remain an ally in the defense of the
people’s most cherished democratic rights.”
In a
separate statement, Sen. Joker Arroyo asserted, however,
that the 10-5 ruling against the Senate’s arrest order
on Neri “goes to the very core of human rights and the
solemn injunction to Congress that the rights of persons
appearing in inquiries shall be respected.”
“I have
never tired cautioning my colleagues on this matter,
which I reiterated even during the last hearing [on the
ZTE anomaly],” Arroyo said, adding “the decision applies
the brakes on the Senate’s propensity to floorboard its
contempt and arrest powers.”
But
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., while
commending Chief Justice Reynato Puno’s dissenting vote
on the ruling upholding presidential privilege,
described the SC majority decision as “terrible,”
warning that “it allows crime cover-up in the guise of
executive privilege and emasculates the Senate’s
investigative functions.”
Majority
Leader Francis Pangilinan also disagreed with the SC
ruling and indicated that Senate lawyers will likely
file a motion for reconsideration.
Pangilinan confirmed he would move that Neri be
subpoenaed to appear at the next hearing as, “I intend
to ask him other questions on the alleged involvement of
President Arroyo in the ZTE-NBN transaction… we will not
allow this legal setback to prevent us from seeking the
truth.”
Opposition Sen. Francis Escudero admitted he, too, was
“disappointed but not discouraged” and would study the
SC ruling’s legal implications before suggesting the
investigating committees’ next course of action.
Meanwhile, labor groups threatened to conduct
simultaneous protest actions across Metro Manila to
denounce the alleged cover-up and lies of the government
in connection with the canceled ZTE-NBN deal.
The
protest actions will be held simultaneously in Manila,
Novaliches, Marikina, Pasig, and Makati up to Las Piñas,
Cavite, and Laguna, by Workers Action, a newly formed
workers’ alliance. “This is just for starters,” Kilusang
Mayong Uno chairman Elmer Labog said.
The
United Opposition (UNO) at the same time said that while
it considers the SC decision “unfortunate,” it believes
the public will continue to seek the truth behind the
NBN-ZTE controversy—as well as other scandals in
government—through other means.
Makati
Mayor Jejomar Binay, Uno president, said the Court’s
decision could increase the public’s interest in
symposiums, lectures and other educational assemblies
organized by the opposition and civil-society groups.
“Far
from ending the search for truth, the decision of the
Supreme Court could have the effect of moving people in
other directions,” he said. (With J. Mayuga) |
