Lejdac is dead in the water

 ‘The developing standoff between the Palace and the Senate is an unassailable argument for junking the Lejdac proposal.’

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the Senate should provide invited officials with the questions they would be asked. In addition, the Senate should say what legislation is being contemplated and what the resource persons could conceivably contribute to deliberations on the proposed new legislation or amendments to existing laws. Only then would the President come to a decision on whether to allow attendance of the invited official.

A day after Ermita’s pronouncement, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye clarified it was not EO 464, which has been junked by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional, that the Palace intends to invoke. Rather it is the Supreme Court ruling on EO 464 which sets the parameters for accepting an invitation to an inquiry in aid of legislation.

And there lies the likely bone of contention. The Palace probably would invoke the exceptions (matters taken up in the Cabinet which the Palace deems are covered by executive privilege, for example) and refuse permission for invited officials to attend hearings. The Senate surely would balk at another round of stonewalling and go back to the Supreme Court.

This issue, however, is not intractable. If a case is filed, the Supreme Court will rule one way or the other. We don’t see any constitutional crisis cropping up as some fear over another clash between the legislative and the executive.

But it certainly shoots down a Palace initiative announced recently which calls for the creation of a Legislative-Executive-Judicial Development Advisory Council. The Lejdac is patterned after the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac).

The Lejdac is supposed to thresh out problems involving relations among the three branches. The Palace cited the alleged indiscriminate issuance of TROs by lower courts against government projects. Such problems, the Palace said, can be addressed by the Lejdac.

The reason behind the creation of the Ledac we can understand. There are countless instances where the legislature and the executive cannot agree on policies and projects. If they can resolve the issues over breakfast, why not?

The difference between Lejdac and Ledac is that the latter brings together the two political departments where give and take is an acceptable way of resolving disputes. The judiciary, in contrast, is required to keep its distance from issues that potentially could be brought before it for adjudication.