he senators did the right
thing in rejecting a proposed "compromise" over Romulo Neri's appearance before
the joint panel looking into the national broadband deal. Had they agreed to
limit Neri's testimony to the inconsequential, the senators would have
effectively castrated themselves and relinquished Congress' powers to conduct
inquiries in aid of legislation.
The spotlight is now on the Supreme Court. It has to rule on
Neri's petition that the Senate's arrest order against him for contempt be
voided. The tribunal has to revisit Senate vs Ermita and come up with a clearer
delineation of where the claim of executive privilege extends and where it
stops. It should not be the case that everytime the issue of executive privilege
is raised, one party or the other runs to the Supreme Court for a ruling.
Take the case Neri. The Senate has listed down three
questions which it says it intends to put before Neri. The questions are: 1) Did
the President show any undue interest in the national broadband network project,
2) Did the President direct Neri to prioritize the NBN project, and; 3) Did she
order the continuance of the project despite allegations of bribery?
It's a long stretch to claim that answering the three
questions would jeopardize national security or diplomatic relations. So where
does executive privilege come in?
It has been established in the Senate hearings that the NBN
project originally was meant to be undertaken through a build-operate-transfer
arrangement. Neri had been adamant on this. Suddenly Neri turned around and
approved a proposal to adopt the project as a government undertaking. Why the
turnaround and when was the decision made by, initially, the National Economic
and Development Authority staff and, subsequently, by the NEDA board, of which
Gloria Arroyo is the chairman?
Neri has testified that he was offered a P200 million bribe
by then election chairman Benjamin Abalos in exchange for NEDA's endorsement of
the project as a purely government undertaking. He said he informed Gloria about
the bribe offer, but was instructed to approve the project nonetheless.
Asked during his initial appearance at the Senate hearing to
elaborate on Arroyo's instructions, he clammed up and invoked executive
privilege.
From then on, the Palace has been stonewalling efforts to
uncover the truth about the NBN deal, to the point where people are now calling
for Arroyo's resignation because of suspicions of a cover-up.
What was so damming about what Gloria said or did that she is
risking ouster to keep it secret?
With the grace of the Supreme Court, we will likely know soon enough.
