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By Darwin G. Amojelar Reporter
A former Chief Justice on
Wednesday appealed to the Supreme Court to reverse its decision
favoring the petition of Romulo Neri, who had invoked executive
privilege during a Senate probe of the controversial broadband deal.
Neri, chairman of the Commission
on Higher Education, argued that conversations between the President
and the Cabinet are covered by executive privilege. As such, they
cannot be disclosed. The High Court agreed with Neri, with a vote of
9-6.
“With due respect to my former
colleagues at the Supreme Court, I think they should reconsider
their decision,” Artemio Panganiban, former Supreme Court Chief
Justice, told reporters.
Panganiban opposed the decision
of the Supreme Court, noting “the rule is accountability and
transparency, the exception is secrecy.”
“With due respect to the
Supreme Court, at least to the majority, I disagree because under
our Constitution, transparency and accountability are primary
principles of governance and therefore any exception to that rule
must be duly proven,” he added.
As former Chief Justice, Panganiban
said he has always believed in the integrity and independence of the
High Court.
“There were many cases [where]
the voting has been reversed,” he noted. For instance, the Supreme
Court reversed its decision on the constitutionality of the Mining
Act. The Court initially voted 8-5 in favor of unconstitutionality,
but about 11 months later, the High Tribunal voted 10-4 saying the
act is constitutional, he said.
On Tuesday, the Senate filed a
motion for reconsideration before the Supreme Court. In their
petition, the senators asked the Court to “take a second
circumspect look at this transcendental Neri case, schedule another
oral argument, if necessary, wherein it will imperatively require
the presence of the petitioner Romulo Neri himself in the
proceedings, and hold an on-camera proceeding as this Honorable
Court may deem appropriate.”
Neri was formerly director
general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA)
when the broadband project was being reviewed by that agency.
In behalf of the three joint
committees investigating the now scuttled $330-million national
broadband deal awarded to China’s ZTE Corp., Senators Alan Peter
Cayetano and Benigno Aquino 3rd filed the 104-page petition before
the Court.
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