BY EVANGELINE DE VERA

WITH its membership complete, the Supreme Court yesterday said it will rule on Tuesday on the petition of acting Higher Education chairman Romulo Neri related to his appearance before the Senate hearing on the national broadband network project.

Court spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said Chief Justice Reynato Puno told the court during an en banc session yesterday that the case would be decided on before the end of the month.

This means that the high court will decide on the case before the start of its summer sessions in Baguio City on April 1.

Marquez said newly appointed Justice Arturo Brion participated in the deliberation.

Brion told reporters soon after his appointment Monday that he saw no reason he should not participate in the Neri case.

Neri’s petition sought a Court ruling that would set the parameters in the invocation of executive privilege on the communications between him and President Arroyo on the controversial national broadband deal that had been awarded to the Chinese firm ZTE Corp.

Neri, who filed the suit in his capacity as former director of the National Economic Development Authority, said the three questions posed by the Senate during its inquiry on the broadband deal are privileged communications covered by executive privilege.

The three questions are whether the President followed up the NBN-ZTE project with Neri; whether he was told by the President to prioritize the NBN-ZTE project; and, whether the President told him to go ahead with the project after learning of the massive bribe offer.

His invocation of executive privilege on these questions has prompted the senators to cite him for contempt and to issue a warrant for his arrest. This also prompted him to seek relief from the SC.

At the end of the oral arguments last March 4, SC magistrates proposed a compromise where Neri would again attend the Senate hearings, provided the senators respected his invocation of executive privilege on the three questions.