World's best. The Las Piñas Boys Choir is welcomed at NAIA by Senate President Manny Villar on arrival yesterday from Graz, Austria, where it won the gold in the children's choir category at the 5th World Choir Games. The group also won second place in the sacred music category.
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Another GMA claim
of 'privilege' upheld
SC JPEPA vote similar to that in Senate vs Neri
BY EVANGELINE DE
VERA
THE Supreme Court, voting 10-4 with
one abstention, yesterday upheld Malacañang's invocation
of executive privilege in refusing to make a full
disclosure of the terms of the Japan-Philippines
Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).
A decision penned by Associate
Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales said the petitioners,
led by party list representatives and non-government
organizations, failed to prove that there is sufficient
public interest to overcome the claim of executive
privilege to compel government to disclose the "offers"
of Japan and Philippine governments.
"Petitioners have failed to present
the strong and sufficient showing of need that the
information sought is critical to the performance of the
functions of Congress, functions that do not include
treaty negotiations," the majority decision stated.
THE Senate minority will block efforts
to defer amendments in the Electric Power Reform Industry
Act (Epira) after the House committee on energy chaired by
Pampanga Rep. Mikey Arroyo initiated moves to shelve the
measure.
"There is a need to revise the Epira
despite the stand of Rep. Mikey Arroyo and members of the
House committee of energy," minority leader Aquilino
Pimentel said.
Members of the House energy committee
have signed a manifesto that the proposed revisions to the
Epira have already been rendered "moot and academic" after
players in the power industry agreed to accelerate the
implementation of Open Access Program where end-users
consuming at least one megawatt of electricity can choose
their power suppliers.
PRESIDENT Arroyo yesterday said lifting the
value-added tax on oil and power would slow down the economy and
deprive the government of up to P70 billion in revenues that
could be used for pro-poor programs.
At the launching of the "Palit Bumbilya,
Katas ng VAT" program at the Philippine International Convention
Center, she said scrapping the VAT, as demanded by a number of
sectors, would also erode business confidence, raise interest
and exchange rates "and therefore raise costs anyway."
"VAT boosted investor confidence in recent
years. From P56.50 to $1, the peso strengthened to P40.23,
before the oil and rice imports brought it back to P45.55.
Imagine if without VAT. Our starting point was P55," she said.
