magkano ka secretary neri?




MANILA, Philippines -- Former socioeconomic planning secretary Romulo
Neri will be required to explain why he should not be cited for
contempt for ignoring a subpoena for him to appear in this Tuesday's
hearing on the national broadband network (NBN) project, according to
a Senate panel spearheading the investigation.

Voting 4-2, the blue ribbon committee ruled that Neri explain his
absence, which Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita justified by citing
executive privilege in a letter sent to Senator Alan Peter Cayetano,
chairman of the committee.

With the ruling, the Senate has moved closer but with caution to
forcing Neri to answer its questions on the cancelled $329 million NBN
contract with China's ZTE Corp.

Senator Juan Ponce-Enrile voted "no" because he believed that Neri
acted in defiance of the Senate when he chose not to be present at the
hearing.

Senator Joker Arroyo also voted no because he believed that while Neri
did not defy the Senate subpoena, he was "prevented from coming...
[and] torn between two powerful forces," referring to the order from
his superior and that from the Senate.

Those who voted "yes" were Senators Manuel Roxas II, Ana Consuelo
Madrigal, Panfilo Lacson, and Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada.

A key witness, Neri, now chairman of the Commission on Higher
Education (CHED), was not allowed by Malacañang to attend the hearing
despite the subpoena issued by the blue ribbon committee.

Ermita said prior to this Tuesday's session, Neri had attended an 11-
hour-long hearing on the NBN contract.

In his letter to Cayetano, Ermita cited executive privilege on the
questions that the Senate would have wanted to ask Neri:

* Whether the President followed up the NBN project?
* Were you dictated to prioritize the ZTE?
* Whether the President said to go ahead and approve the project after
being told about the alleged bribe?

The last question refers to Neri's claim that he was offered a P200
million bribe by then Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos
to issue a favorable endorsement on the NBN project.

Abalos was supposed to have brokered the agreement between the
government and ZTE Corp. Abalos denied the claim but resigned as poll
chief.

Ermita said Neri was advised not to attend the hearing as "maintaining
the confidentiality of conversations of the President is necessary in
the exercise of her executive and policy decision making process."

"Disclosure of conversations of the President will have a chilling
effect on the President, and will hamper her in the effective
discharge of her duties and responsibilities, if she is not protected
by the confidentiality of her conversations...[Neri] cannot provide
the committee any further details of these conversations without
disclosing the very thing the privilege is designed to protect,"
Ermita said in his letter.

The executive secretary cited two Supreme Court rulings on executive
privilege: Almonte v Vasquez GR 95367, 23 May 1995 and Chavez v PEA GR
133250, July 9, 2002.

Ermita also said Neri's testimony "might impair diplomatic as well as
economic relations with the People's Republic of China."


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