BY DENNIS GADIL

SEN. Joker Arroyo yesterday said the Senate and Malacañang have no one to blame but themselves for the failure of Higher Education chair Romulo Neri and Rodolfo Noel Lozada, his former consultant at the National Economic Development Authority, to attend the joint Senate hearing on the anomalous $329-million national broadband deal.

"Both sides (Senate, Palace) don’t follow the Supreme Court. Questions should be sent in advance (by the Senate) so that Cabinet members could prepare," Arroyo said in a media briefing at the Senate.

He said one of the requirements of the tribunal is that the Senate furnish beforehand its target Cabinet members and government officials its list of possible questions.

"Tell them (Neri and Lozada) the questions in advance, (there will be) no problem. Without questions, it’s unfair," he said.

"But the Senate has not done this," said Arroyo, who previously chaired the Blue Ribbon committee.

He said Neri was wrong in invoking executive privilege because he still does not know the questions of the Senate probers.

He said the Senate and Malacañang should also hold a dialogue to avoid a stalemate and avert a possible constitutional crisis. "Ang nangyayari bastusan. It’s a failure of leadership."

He said the Senate or Malacañang could not always run to the Supreme Court to settle their disputes. "You start to talk, dialogue or hold a conference. It’s statesmanship of the highest order."

He said that if he were still the Blue Ribbon chairman, he would act in accordance with the SC order.

"What the SC says I will follow. I won’t issue a warrant I can’t enforce. That’s stupid," he said.

Blue Ribbon chair Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano said the Supreme Court only ordered that questions be furnished to invited resource speakers during the "Question Hour" and not during investigations."

Cayetano said Neri and Lozada were being invited on the NBN deal and not for the Question Hour where Cabinet members appear before the entire Senate.

The Senate has issued warrants of arrest against Neri and Lozada.

Neri is nowhere to be found but has asked the SC to restrain the Senate from putting him in its custody. Lozada left last Wednesday for the United Kingdom via Hong Kong for an "official mission."

Senate President Manuel Villar said Neri and Lozada were only collateral damage and the real issue is the right of the Senate to exercise its power to issue subpoenas

Malacañang said the Cabinet is behind Neri but it could not say the same for Lozada, president of Philippine Forest Corp.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said he cannot speak on allegations that Lozada is the NBN-ZTE’s version of Jocelyn "Joc Joc" Bolante, the mastermind of the P780 million fertilizer fund scam.

Deputy presidential spokeswoman Lorelei Fajardo said the opposition is "going hyperactive in their imagination" when it alleged that the Palace is spending for Lozada’s trip to Hong Kong. "Kuwentong barbero lang iyan...There is no cause for government to do that." –With Regina Bengco