BY GERARD NAVAL

CALOOCAN Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez, head of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Public Affairs Committee, yesterday called on Higher Education chair Romulo Neri to ponder on his role to the country and act according to the dictates of his conscience.

In a phone interview, Iñiguez said although it is but proper to respect the decision of the Supreme Court upholding Neri’s petition to invoke executive privilege in the Senate’s ZTE inquiry, it is still up to Neri if he will use it or not.

Last Tuesday, the tribunal, by a vote of 9 to 6, ruled that Neri correctly invoked executive privilege in refusing questions of the senators regarding his conversation with President Arroyo on the P200 million bribe attempt on him by then Elections chair Benjamin Abalos in exchange for his approval of the project proposal of China’s ZTE Corp. for the national broadband network project.

Iñiguez said he supports the plan of some senators to insist on inviting Neri at the resumption of the broadband inquiry.

"If they are still keen on pursuing to find the truth in their investigation, tama siguro na imbitahin pa (Neri) siya. Baka naman may iba pang mga questions na magiging daan din para makita ang hinahanap nating katotohanan," Iñiguez said.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Wednesday said Neri can still be invited in the Senate inquiry and has to answer questions from senators other than the three questions as ordered by the Supreme Court.

These are whether the President followed up the NBN-ZTE project with Neri; whether Neri was dictated to prioritize the NBN-ZTE project, and whether the President told him to go ahead and approve the project after being told about the alleged bribe by Abalos.

Iñiguez said it may be good to seriously look into the dissenting opinions on the ruling.

He said based on the explanation that the bishops received from constitutional experts, a government official cannot use the privilege to hide a crime.

Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, one of those who gave a dissenting opinion, has said that Neri discussed bribery issues with Arroyo, thus making it a possible crime that could be hidden with the invocation of executive privilege.

Senate minority leader Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel said "it may be difficult but not impossible" to convince the Supreme Court to reverse its ruling.

Pimentel said the high court’s ruling on the case was based on a number of erroneous premises as he expressed the hope that the tribunal’s members who ruled in favor of Neri’s petition will see this when the Senate files its motion for reconsideration.

"The filing of a motion for reconsideration is not only prudent. I think it is necessary for purposes of historical records. I think it is important that majority of the justices, nine of them, will have to be confronted with the facts as we see them," he told the Kapihan sa Senado media forum.

He said the tribunal erred when it faulted the Senate for allegedly failing to publish its in-house rules on investigation.

Pimentel said these rules have been published in national newspapers and can be found in the Senate’s website. But since the Senate is a continuing body, he said there is no need to republish them every time a new set of 12 senators is elected into office.

"The Senate does not end with the termination of every congressional term. Unlike the House of Representatives whose term ends completely every three years, the Senate is a continuing body," he explained.

The Senate tri-panel is scheduled to resume the inquiry on April 2 or April 8.

CALL DE LA TORRE

ZTE witness Dante Madriaga called on the Senate to subpoena retired Gen. Quirino de la Torre so he can shed light on the "commissions" in the broadband contract.

Madriaga said senators are reluctant to summon De la Torre due to his fragile health. De la Torre is bed-ridden due to cancer.

Madriaga singled out Lacson as primarily opposed to summoning or issuing a subpoena against De la Torre.

Lacson had meetings with De la Torre during the time that the former was prodding cable executive Leo San Miguel to testify.

Madriaga said De la Torre could testify either through phone patch or a video to be administered by the technical working group of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, which is leading the investigation.

Madriaga had told senators that De la Torre and Ruben Reyes are protecting the interests of Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo and President Arroyo in the NBN-ZTE contract.

He said De la Torre and Reyes have been inseparable since the 2004 elections where he said they oversaw cheating operations in Mindanao for the administration.